Rethinking Foucault from China: Sexuality, Literature and Modernity

Abstract

Foucauldian philosophy, introduced in China from the 1990s onwards under the vague label of French Theory, has had a relative impact on literary studies. Its rare application to Chinese literature —especially pre-modern fiction— stems from the Orientalist aura that still surrounds Michel Foucault’s thought, particularly his distinction between the civilisations of scientia sexualis and ars erotica —among which China is included—, set out in the first volume of his History of Sexuality (1976). Drawing on the lecture Sexuality (1964) and testimonies from the late Foucault, I will attempt to deconstruct this vision of sexuality and present Chinese culture as yet another civilisation with a regime of scientia sexualis. To conclude, I will briefly apply my re-reading to two Chinese literary texts: Jin Ping Mei (c. 1610) and Ruined City (1993).