Paradisiacal Sex

Sexuality and Desexualisation in Michel Foucault and Augustin of Hippo’s Confessions

Abstract

Towards the end of his life, Michel Foucault proposed an interpretation of the sexual revolution in terms of “desexualisation”. The purpose of this essay is to outline the relationships between homosexual and queer experiences and those in late antiquity and Christianity. Through an analysis of the Foucauldian interpretation of Augustine of Hippo –specifically of his doctrine on paradisiacal sex and chastity– the aim is to demonstrate that asceticism may be conceived as a different exercise of sexuality that do not solely consists of abstinence, abstention, self-control or abnegation but, rather, libido is the very foundation of the subject’s being. Such a spiritual and sexual experience – that for Augustine tears subject from his will – for Foucault is very akin to the principle that should govern every devenir-homosexuels. Somehow, both Augustine’s Confessiones and Foucault’s Confessions of the Flesh are testament of different but parallel lives.