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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is one of the theses that Foucault has presented?
(a) All of the above.
(b) The discourse of sexual repression is part of the incitement to discourse on sex.
(c) Power is not derived primarily from repression.
(d) Sexual repression is not a historical fact.

2. Per Foucault, what does our tone of voice tell us when we speak about sexuality?
(a) That we derive sexual pleasure from it.
(b) That we feel we are being subversive.
(c) That we are ashamed of our sexuality.
(d) That we long for more understanding and help.

3. What does Foucault say was true about sexuality at the beginning of the seventeenth century?
(a) There was little secrecy, and openness and frankness about the illicit were common.
(b) All forms of sexuality were highly condemed by the church.
(c) There were high consequences for any deviation from the socially accepted mores of the era.
(d) It was considered by all to be the ethical and moral challenge of the age.

4. Which of the following can NOT be said of the medicalization of the sexually peculiar?
(a) It required an intimate exchange of discourse.
(b) It was an analytical practice devoid of pleasure.
(c) It entailed examination and insistent observation.
(d) It presupposed proximity.

5. What did the author of "My Secret Life" write about?
(a) The horror he felt at some of his sexual desires.
(b) A scrupulous and detailed account of his sexual episodes.
(c) Secrets told to him by friends.
(d) Sexual acts he heard in confession.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is NOT one of Foucault's statements regarding the discourses around sexuality of children?

2. What does Foucault say about the repressive hypothesis?

3. What does "incomplete" sexual practices refer to?

4. What does Foucault NOT say is our perceived notion of confession?

5. What does Foucault say happened when there was the apparent "silencing" of sex in discourse?

Short Essay Questions

1. Per Foucault, what result came about from the "will to knowledge" with the taboo of sexuality?

2. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, what changes happened to the legal process of handling sexual offenses?

3. According to Foucault, what was the purpose of the emerging analytical sexual discourse? Give examples.

4. What mechanisms spread sexual discourse after the confessional? Give examples.

5. What does Foucault say sexuality was like in the beginning of the 17th century?

6. What is the repressive hypothesis?

7. What is the relationship that Foucault defines between power and pleasure?

8. How did the focus of sexual control change from the eighteenth to nineteenth century? Where was it and where did it shift to?

9. What did the medicalization of the effects of confession promise, and how did that effect scientia sexualis?

10. How did the emergence of "population" as an economic and political problem effect the discourse on sexuality?

(see the answer keys)

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