Article ID: CBB001024018

Scientia sexualis Versus ars erotica: Foucault, Van Gulik, Needham (2011)

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This paper begins with a discussion of the scientia sexualis/ars erotica distinction, which Foucault first advances in History of Sexuality Vol. 1, and which has been employed by many scholars to do a variety of analytical work. Though Foucault has expressed his doubts regarding his conceptualization of the differences between Western and Eastern discourses of desire, he never entirely disowns the distinction. In fact, Foucault remains convinced that China must have an ars erotica. I will explore Foucault's sources of authority. To this end, I introduce the work of famous Dutch sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik, who published the tremendously influential Sexual Life in Ancient China in 1961, and also explore Joseph Needham's view on Chinese sex. I argue that, Foucault, in his fierce polemic against the Repressive Hypothesis, himself imagined a utopian Other where pleasure and desire were organised differently. I end on a discuss on Orientalism and the project of Sinography of comparative literature scholars Haun Saussy, Eric Hayot and others.

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Authors & Contributors
Cohen, H. Floris
Zhang, Baichun
Kubin, Wolfgang
Wang, Yangzong
Vogel, Hans Ulrich
Tian, Miao
Concepts
East Asia, civilization and culture
Western world, civilization and culture
Cross-cultural comparison
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Science, general histories
Historiography
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
17th century
Premodern
Edo period (Japan, 1603-1868)
Early modern
Places
China
Greece
Japan
Europe
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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