Elephants, Christians, and Pagans in the History of Sexuality

Abstract:

In this article, I argue that Foucault's archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France require that we re-evaluate the development of his tournant antique. Between 1976 and 1984, Foucault does not orchestrate a turn to ancient Greek and Roman ethics in a departure from his analysis of modern sexuality in the 1976 History of Sexuality, volume 1, as volumes 2 and 3 as published suggest. Instead, it is through his redrafting of volume 2 that he moves from early modern to late ancient Christians, to Greco-Roman philosophers, to ancient Greek philosophers. Tracing Foucault's use of the "moral of the elephant" both before and after his January 1981 Collège de France course provides a way to better understand how Foucault shifts and constructs his History of Sexuality series over his last decade.