Ctomer reviews: Sat Fouult : Towards a Gay Haggraphy

Contents:

• SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY
• SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY
• SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY
• BOOK REVIEW SAT FOUULT: TOWARD A GAY HAGGRAPHY. BY DAVID M. HALPER. OXFORD UNIVERSY PRS, NEW YORK, 1995, 246 PAG.
• SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY
• SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY - HARDVER
• SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY - SOFTVER
• SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

As for general history, Fouult repeatedly refers the rear to Dover's _Greek Homosexualy_, which was published between volum one and two, and which he jt as repeatedly tells he accepts basic outle.

SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

" Whatever my ser rervatns about Fouult's ias may be, I know for sure that he would fd the ia of a "gay haggraphy" very unsound.

I was pecially lookg forward to Halper snarkg back at Cale Paglia for her vtatg review of his book "100 Years of Homosexualy", but Paglia's famo "Junk Bonds and Corporate Rairs" is never addrsed.

"My work has had nothg to do wh gay liberatn, " Michel Fouult reportedly told an admirer 1975.

SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

And ed there is srcely more than a passg mentn of homosexualy Fouult's scholarly wrgs.

So why has Fouult, who died of AIDS 1984, bee a powerful source of both personal and polil spiratn to an entire generatn of gay activists? Halper's Sat Fouult is an unpromisg and impassned fense of the late French philosopher and historian as a galvanizg thker whose reer as a theorist and activist will ntue to serve as a mol for other gay tellectuals, activists, and scholars.

A close readg of both Fouult and the creasg attacks on his life and work, explas why straight liberals so often fd Fouult only unsels of spair on the subject of polics, whereas gay activists look to him not only for tellectual spiratn but also for a pellg example of polil ristance.

BOOK REVIEW SAT FOUULT: TOWARD A GAY HAGGRAPHY. BY DAVID M. HALPER. OXFORD UNIVERSY PRS, NEW YORK, 1995, 246 PAG.

Halper rcu Fouult om the endls nature-vers-nurture bate over the origs of homosexualy ("On this qutn I have absolutely nothg to say, " Fouult himself once remarked) and argu that Fouult's cisn to treat sexualy not as a blogil or psychologil drive but as an effect of disurse, as the product of morn systems of knowledge and power, reprents a ccial polil breakthrough for lbians and gay men. Halper explas how Fouult's radil visn of homosexualy as a strategic opportuny for self-transformatn anticipated the new anti-assiatnist, anti-sentialist brand of sexual inty polics practiced by ntemporary direct-actn groups such as ACT UP. Halper also offers the first synthetic acunt of Fouult's thkg about gay sex and the future of the lbian and gay movement, as well as an up-to-the-mute summary of the most recent work queer theory.

Ede, bg, and surprisgly movg, Sat Fouult reprents Halper's own ristance to what he views as the blatant and systematic misreprentatn of a ccial tellectual figure, a misreprentatn he se as dramatic evince of the ntug personal, profsnal, and scholarly vulnerabily of all gay activists and tellectuals the age of AIDS.

Book Review Sat Fouult: Toward a Gay Haggraphy.

SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

Halper rcu Fouult om the endls nature-vers-nurture bate over the origs of homosexualy ("On this qutn I have absolutely nothg to say, " Fouult himself once remarked) and argu that Fouult's cisn to treat sexualy not as a blogil or psychologil drive but as an effect of disurse, as the product of morn systems of knowledge and power reprents a ccial polil breakthrough for lbians and gay men. 5 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-19-509371-1That French philosopher Fouult, who died om AIDS-related illns 1984, ntu to fluence gay activism and theory whout ever havg explicly endorsed such activism or given staed attentn to homosexualy is the paradox that Halper, a profsor of lerature at MIT, nonts this mandg, eloquent and tic book. Halper offers close readgs of Fouult's thought, fg a lk between s characterizatn of polil ristance as a creative procs and gay polics.

SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY - HARDVER

The goal of activism, then, is not reform but ristance; the retrieval of the word ``queer'' and s empowerg e by gays and lbians is one such example.

SAT FOUULT : TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY - SOFTVER

Halper clos the book wh analys of Fouult's bgraphers, sglg out for blisterg attack Jam Miller, whose Passn of Michel Fouult (1993), Halper argu, epomiz the disgenuo ways which ``mastream'' acunts of gay culture play upon the very homophobia they purportedly wish to illumate. A foundg edor of GLQ: A Journal of Lbian and GayStudi, and a edor of The Lbian and Gay Studi Rear, he is the thor most notably of One Hundred Years of Homosexualy, which Outweek lled "the sgle most important ntributn to the terpretatn of gay history nearly a . ""Fouult, the worm havg turned, needs fenrs the days, and Halper fills the posn well, argug that Fouult provis the radil gay movement wh both the philosophil unrpngs and polil means wh which to rist supprsn by mastream culture.

SAT FOUULT: TOWARDS A GAY HAGGRAPHY

It is required readg for everyone terted Fouult's thought, philosophil thought and ntemporary polics, as well as everyone terted Queer Theory and the ongog ntroversi and stggl of the gay movement.