View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is scientia sexualis?

2. Which of the following is NOT a procedure by which the confession came to be constituted in scientific terms?

3. Which of the many great innovations in the techniques of power in the eighteenth century was inextricably interwoven with the discourse on sex?

4. What does the postulate of a general and diffuse causality say?

5. Which of the following did NOT happen to the nature of the confession?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did the method of interpretation help solidify scientia sexualis?

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

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

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

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

7. What was "My Secret Life" and why was it relevant to Foucault's argument?

8. According to Foucault, what affect has the supposed power of restriction and limitation had over sexuality?

9. Briefly define the changes that happened to confessions regarding sex in the seventeenth century, and how it affected sexual discourse.

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 the format of scientia sexualis is based on the model of the Christian confessional.

Part 1: How did the format of confession change that opened the doors to broader sexual discourse?

Part 2: What was unique about the power structure and format of the confessional that opened the way to scientia sexualis?

Part 3: What elements of the confessional still exist in practice today in scientia sexualis? What has changed?

Essay Topic 2

Had sexuality been a method of repression it would have been used as a tool by one social class to subjugate another. Foucault refutes this with his explanation of the rise of sexual discourse.

Part 1: Explain how and why, in Foucault's analysis, that sexual discourse arose. Where did it start? What crucial foundation was laid?

Part 2: Explain how and why the discourse eventually diffused into throughout society.

Essay Topic 3

Foucault presents us with three questions in part one. Discuss each of those three questions, and elaborate on what Foucault's theories are about each question.

Part 1: Is the repression of sexuality a historical fact or a modern creation imposed retroactively on the past?

Part 2: Does the repression of sexuality lead to concentration of power?

Part 3: Is the analysis of the repression of sexuality in reality simply a constituent component of the repression itself?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 959 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample