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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is one of the theses that Foucault has presented?

2. What does Foucault say was true about the discourse on sex by scholars and theoreticians until Freud?

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

4. Which of the following is NOT a practice of the form of power derived from analysis used to control sexuality in children?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Foucault mean by the "speaker's benefit?"

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

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

4. What are the four modes of power discussed by Foucault?

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

6. Who was the peasant Jouy, and why was he significant to Foucault's argument?

7. What were the objectives of the the extensive laws regulating the actions of married couples in the eighteenth century?

8. What are the three topics of doubt about the repressive hypothesis that Foucault will seek to explore?

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

10. What is the postulate of general and diffuse causality? How did it help sexual discourse spread?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Foucault asserts that there are four principle branches of modern sexuality based on four power centers. Describe each one.

Part 1: Hysterization of women's bodies.

Part 2: Pedagogy of children's sex.

Part 3: Socialization of procreation.

Part 4: Psychiatrization of perversion.

Essay Topic 2

Explain what Foucault means by political power shifting from power of death to power over life.

Part 1: What is a society like whose political power structure is based on the power of death? What does power of death mean?

Part 2: What is a society like whose political power structure is focused on power over life? What does power over life mean?

Part 3: What other significant changes to society happened during this shift?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Foucault's premise that power within a sociological construction is inextricably linked to resistance, and the relation of this view of power in sexuality.

Part 1: Describe power in a sociological construction. Is it inherent in the system? Can it be acquired or seized? Are power relations intentional or subjective?

Part 2: Using the paradigm of power laid out above, describe the power relations in sexuality.

(see the answer keys)

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