Desire and discourse in Foucault: The sign of the fig leaf in Michelangelo's David

Abstract

The first part of this paper utilizes Foucault's work in The History of Sexuality as a basis for assessing the meaning and significance of the fig leaf placed on Michelangelo's sculpture, David. The fig leaf is shown to reveal, no less than conceal, David as a sexual object. This suggests that the act of censorship must be viewed as a complex process whereby what appears to be denied or negated, on one level, is in fact affirmed and given prominence, on a deeper level. The second section examines the motif of the fig leaf in the story of Adam and Eve as a prototype of Foucault's idea of sex as a category of knowledge (biopower). The third sec? tion employs Foucault's distinction between ars erotica and seien tia sexualis as the basis for a comparison of classical and modern attitudes towards sex. The paper concludes with a consideration of the requirements for a reflective, transsubjectivist mode of dis? course in terms of the relationship between desire and the de? sirable. The status of Foucault's theoretical discourse itself as a transsubjectivist commitment is questioned.