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

2. According to Foucault, what has happened to our "will to knowledge" regarding sexuality?
(a) It has created an understanding of our perversions.
(b) It has shown us the path to liberation.
(c) It has created a science of sexuality.
(d) It came to a halt in the face of taboo.

3. Why is the author of "My Secret Life" an interesting example in Foucault's argument?
(a) Because he was a window into the popular social norms of the time.
(b) Because he represented the negative effects of repression.
(c) Because he was part of the institutionalization of sexual discourse.
(d) Because he was turning sex into discourse for his own pleasure.

4. What does Foucault mean by "we other Victorians?"
(a) We are unable to willfully escape the supposed historical repression of sexuality.
(b) We are on the brink of the biggest change in sexuality since the Victorian era.
(c) We are continuing the progress of liberation from repression started by the Victorians.
(d) We are trying to restore sexuality as it was during the Victorian era.

5. What does Foucault define as the popularly held belief about sexuality over the last two centuries?
(a) It has been a chronicle of increasing repression.
(b) Sexuality has thrived in predefined relationships.
(c) It has become more healthy and balanced.
(d) It has moved from the immoral to the moral.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which statement is least correct, according to Foucault, about pedagogical institutions in the eighteenth century?

2. What does Foucault NOT say was true about the science of sexuality before Freud?

3. Per Foucault, what happened the "will to knowledge" about sexuality under the taboo of sexuality?

4. What does Foucault say has happened to sexual discourse?

5. What was the focus of the codes of sexual conduct up to the end of the eighteenth century?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the medicalization of sexuality? What relationship does it create?

2. What does Foucault say was the model for modern sexual discourse in the west? What elements of it remain?

3. What is the classification of perversions, and what effect did it have?

4. After the beginning of the 17th century, where was sexuality shifted to and for what ends?

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

6. What does Foucault mean by "We Other Victorians?"

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

8. What are ars erotica and scientia sexualis? How are they different?

9. What is Foucault referring to by "a regulated and polymorphous incitement to discourse?"

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

(see the answer keys)

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