The history of sexuality: An introduction, volume I
by Foucault, Michel (1978)
Key Passage
Where there is power, there is resistance, and yet, or rather consequently, this resistance is never in a positionof exteriority in relation to power. Should it be said that one is always "inside" power, there is no "escaping" it,there is no absolute outside where it is concerned, because one is subject to the law in any case? Or that, history being the ruse of reason, power is the ruse of history, always emerging the winner? This would be to misunderstand the strictly relational character of power relationships. Their existence depends on a multiplicity of points of resistance: these play the role of adversary, target, support, or handle in power relations. These points of resistance are present everywhere in the power network. Hence there is no single locus of great Refusal, no soul of revolt, source of all rebellions, or pure law of the revolutionary. Instead there is a plurality of resistances, each of them a special case: resistances that are possible, necessary, improbable; others that are spontaneous, savage, solitary, concerted, rampant, or violent; still others that are quick to compromise, interested, or sacrificial; by definition, they can only exist in the strategic field of power relations. (p.95)
Keywords
Foucault, Sexuality, Repression, Power, Resistance, Postmodernism, PoststructuralismThemes
Resistance to/at Work, History of Sexuality, Foucault CitationsLinks to Reference
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