46 pages • 1 hour read
Michel FoucaultThe History of Sexuality: Volume 1
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1976A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5 Summary: “Right of Death and Power over Life”
For centuries, sovereign powers held the right to determine death or life for their subjects. They ruled with complete control. By the time historians began to study this phenomenon, rulers no longer had this total power over their subjects. State violence was only acceptable when it was connected to the survival of the ruler or land. However, sovereign powers were able to affect life and death indirectly. Because they could no longer exert power by killing, life became the playground for enacting power. One way to do this was through seizure. Rulers could enact power by taking things away, including time, possessions, and, through incarceration, even the body itself.
In the modern era, Foucault claims, institutions moved away from exerting control by taking away. Seizure was only one in a series of mechanisms that could be used to enact power. Developing life proved to be far more useful. Those regimes that used death to control in the 19th and 20th centuries appear more startling in contrast to the powers that used life to manage and dominate. When killing seemed necessary, successful sovereigns framed wars as benefiting the entire population, not just the ruler: “the principle underlying the tactics of battle—that one has to be capable of killing in order to go on living—has become the principle that defines the strategy of states” (137). Similarly, the death penalty was originally conceived to destroy anyone who challenged the sovereign ruler. A modern conception of the death penalty was the removal of a dangerous individual for the good of the entire population. Foucault asserts that a focus on biological existence became the foundation for manipulation. Power over life is the modern invention that drives the contemporary historical narrative.
One way this new form of power functioned was by conceiving of the body as a machine. The body’s value lay in its usefulness and productivity. Discipline was a system for ensuring the utilitarian value of the body. The second was the consideration of the body as a reproductive tool. These two pillars created a framework for the control of life rather than the rule of death. The expansion of institutions that housed bodies, such as universities and barracks, created new opportunities for the control of the body. Foucault refers to this model of power as “bio-power” and argues that it was a determining factor in the advancement of capitalism. This economic and political system needed bodies for labor, thereby increasing the need for control of the body. One consequence of the creation of bio-power was the development of social norms. Bio-power formed the historical context for the relationship between sex and power. A focus on biology gave sex meaning. The myth is the belief that bio-power leads to liberation.
Part 5 Analysis
Part 5 forms the basis for Foucault’s second volume of The History of Sexuality, which focuses on the use of pleasure for the advancement of power. In Part 5, Foucault explores how sovereign powers enact control over death and life. He argues that history shows a tendency to exert power through subtraction. Rulers used capital punishment to eliminate those who challenged their power or the power of the state, and to deter anyone else who might with to follow their example. Death became the mechanism of power. The shift from death to life is representative of The Effects of Social Norms. As civilization grew more connected, crimes against rulers evolved into crimes against populations. War was about what an opposing force was attempting to do to a state’s people rather than the removal of a leader. Foucault suggests that this created the need for bio-power, the use of life to advance domination.
In addition to connectedness, production served as another catalyst for a shift in social norms. Foucault argues that capitalism and power over the body emerged at the same time. Those holding power learned that the body could be used as a machine for the advancement of wealth. The emergence of the industrial revolution created a need for a healthy population that could fill labor demands. People were regulated through a series of mechanisms designed to capitalize on their ability to produce. This developed the intrinsic relationship of Sex and Power. Sex was an area where power could control the labor output. High rates of reproduction meant more workers. Therefore, reproduction was a priority. The need to maintain population growth led to the introduction of categories of sexuality and the separation of licit and illicit sex. However, Foucault is quick to explain that this was only one contributing factor to a complicated system of power relationships.
The concept of biopower relates to Foucault’s other theories about the penal system. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault details a history of the justice system as centered on eradication rather than rehabilitation. Public executions were designed to discourage others from committing the same crime. The point was to eliminate the offense along with the offenders. Over time, as the tapestry of social norms changed, punishment began to focus more on treatment. Prisoners were locked away out of sight, and the public emphasized the importance of helping those who had committed crimes. Rehabilitation was viewed as a way of returning a valuable laborer back to the work force. The same is true for the mentally ill, illustrated in Madness and Civilization. The intended function of the mental institution was to treat and release. Capitalism was ascendant, and bodies were valuable capital. The History of Sexuality emphasizes this point. What could be considered one of the most private and intimate aspects of human life is coaxed from its cave into the arms of profit and production. The expansion of capitalism closes the debate on The Myth of Repression. The repressive hypothesis is concerned with controlling and concealing. Foucault argues that power produces. Capitalism needs bodies that are exposed, vulnerable, and moving, and it needs knowledge of those bodies to determine its strategies. The power-knowledge relationship helps to create the mechanisms that ensured the success of this new economic system.
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