- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New Ed edition (10 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195111273
- ISBN-13: 978-0195111279
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 13.9 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 834,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"Foucault, the worm having turned, needs defenders these days, and Halperin fills the position well, arguing that Foucault provides the radical gay movement with both the philosophical underpinnings and political means with which to resist suppression by mainstream culture."--The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Saint Foucault is not only the most stimulating analysis to date of 'the Foucault effect': it is a major contribution in its own right to the political effect of Foucault's work. It is required reading for everyone interested in Foucault's thought, in philosophical thought and contemporary politics, as well as everyone interested in Queer Theory and in the ongoing controversies and struggles of the gay movement."--Didier Eribon, author of Michel Foucault and Michel Foucault et ses contemporains
"Without even setting out to do so, David Halperin has provided the most lucid explication of the later work of Foucault that I've read. As if this were not rebuke enough to thos --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Times Higher Education Supplement
"a provocative read ... Halperin's book is highly engaging."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
IN A RECENT book devoted to the commendable task of promoting and defending what, in its title, are called Gay Ideas, the philosopher Richard Mohr singles out for extended criticism one idea in particular that, despite its sometime popularity among lesbian and gay historians and cultural theorists, evidently does not qualify, in his eyes, as properly "gay": namely, the idea that sexuality is socially constructed. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
IN A RECENT book devoted to the commendable task of promoting and defending what, in its title, are called Gay Ideas, the philosopher Richard Mohr singles out for extended criticism one idea in particular that, despite its sometime popularity among lesbian and gay historians and cultural theorists, evidently does not qualify, in his eyes, as properly "gay": namely, the idea that sexuality is socially constructed. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I will pay this book a high compliment for a book of criticism: It made me want to look up and read the end notes. Even further, it reawakened my interest in Foucault (for a time partly under the sleeping spell of Camille Paglia). Halperin does a wonderful job of pointing out the political biases and even the lapses of "critical reasoning" among Foucault's detractors, while making a strong case for his hyperbolic claim that the philosopher was "a f****** saint," presumedly with apparent oxymoron intended. Especially strong is the book's argument of Foucault's importance in AIDS activism and subsequently to so-called queer theory. The writing is lucid, compassionate, sometimes (justifiably) angry, candid, and often witty. Halperin does not fall into the usual postmodernist traps of excessive jargon and redundancy. The last section of the book points out the problems of biography in general, while attending to the specific strengths and weaknesses of three recent attempts to narrate Foucault's life. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy and/or issues of gender and sexuality.
Format:Paperback
I started reading this book on a lazy afternoon in the library. I left the library at the break of dawn, with pages of quotes I wanted to learn. I also remember wishing I had read this book before reading Foucault.
The focus on resistance as queer praxis is deeply enlightening. Halperin is to be praised for gently pointing out that Foucault did not use the term 'queer', despite its current topical usage in Theory. The candidness in theorising fisting and S/M made me want to clap my hands - which would have seemed rather unseemly to the librarians perhaps. The concluding bout of in-your-face attack leaves the reader jubilant, to be sure.
I highly recommend giving this book to anyone you like.
The focus on resistance as queer praxis is deeply enlightening. Halperin is to be praised for gently pointing out that Foucault did not use the term 'queer', despite its current topical usage in Theory. The candidness in theorising fisting and S/M made me want to clap my hands - which would have seemed rather unseemly to the librarians perhaps. The concluding bout of in-your-face attack leaves the reader jubilant, to be sure.
I highly recommend giving this book to anyone you like.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Useful polemic; not really an airtight study
8 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
Halperin's book is very interesting: it stakes a somewhat extreme position on Foucault (be forewarned that the title isn't ironic!) and attempts to mount a case for Foucault's critical centrality to gay studies and gay theoretical discourse in very clear (and very emotional) rhetoric.
It's useful to have book of this sort as a kind of diatribe, and it's actually quite refreshing to have someone stake such a claim to poststructuralist thinking in such a candid and emotional manner. But it's very easy to pick apart Halperin's arguments, to see his blind spots and where his adoration of what he thinks Foucault stood for actually misrepresent Foucault, or (in other places) aren't as useful or as empowering for gay men and women as he would like to believe. Still, realizing this is in-and-of-itself quite instructive (I should note that its flaws make the book teach very well in courses on sexuality or gender--the students have a great deal to pick apart), and it's still a bracing little polemic.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A useful but problematically blinkered study
19 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
The first thing you need to know about David Halperin's SAINT FOUCAULT is that the title is only moderately ironic. That is, Halperin really sees Foucault as a sort of liberating force for the Western gay world: although he makes his case quite passionately, his claims seem very blinkered by his adoration. This is a good book to assign students insofar as it makes a useful argument to tear apart, but time has shown that Halperin's vision of Foucault has more to do with Halperin and less to do with Foucault himself and what he actually said.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
An Outstanding Classic!
13 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
This is the best book I have ever read on Foucault, no contest--though one must be clear that Halperin is EXPLICITLY NOT attempting any general and comprehensive explanation of Foucault's life work and thought, which Halperin makes quite clear, though there seems to be some confusion below regarding this point. In fact, the tone of some of the reviews only serve as a demonstration of some of Halperin's points.
My main criticism is that I would go even a little further than Halperin with respect to Foucault's actual purpose or mission in _The History of Sexuality_. I would say that, with volumes two and three, Foucault has shifted his purpose from a general "history" (hence the title) of the rise of "sexuality" to a deconstructive and very narrow focus on certain discourses in antiquity that ostensibly SEEM to mirror our own while actually being quite alien to it. It just so happens that these ancient discourses are about men. From this perspective, all the complaining of a small but very loud minority of feminists merely reflects a failure to understand what Foucault was doing. He wasn't trying to give us a general history; rather, he became fascinated by how the ancient world's most familiar discourses (which are about men) could, in fact, be extremely different, by the demonstration and analysis of that difference. As for general history, Foucault repeatedly refers the reader to Dover's _Greek Homosexuality_, which was published between volumes one and two, and which he just as repeatedly tells us he accepts in basic outline. Feeling there was no longer an urgent need for a "history," he gave us his actual second and third volumes. Should he have given us a hint he was changing course? He did!--in the introduction of the second volume. Readers need to learn to be a bit more active--though, clearly, as original, good, and rigorous as the thinking and analysis may be, it does make for a rather uniquely structured set of books.
My main criticism is that I would go even a little further than Halperin with respect to Foucault's actual purpose or mission in _The History of Sexuality_. I would say that, with volumes two and three, Foucault has shifted his purpose from a general "history" (hence the title) of the rise of "sexuality" to a deconstructive and very narrow focus on certain discourses in antiquity that ostensibly SEEM to mirror our own while actually being quite alien to it. It just so happens that these ancient discourses are about men. From this perspective, all the complaining of a small but very loud minority of feminists merely reflects a failure to understand what Foucault was doing. He wasn't trying to give us a general history; rather, he became fascinated by how the ancient world's most familiar discourses (which are about men) could, in fact, be extremely different, by the demonstration and analysis of that difference. As for general history, Foucault repeatedly refers the reader to Dover's _Greek Homosexuality_, which was published between volumes one and two, and which he just as repeatedly tells us he accepts in basic outline. Feeling there was no longer an urgent need for a "history," he gave us his actual second and third volumes. Should he have given us a hint he was changing course? He did!--in the introduction of the second volume. Readers need to learn to be a bit more active--though, clearly, as original, good, and rigorous as the thinking and analysis may be, it does make for a rather uniquely structured set of books.
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