Introduction: Foucault's The History of Sexuality : The Fourth Volume, or, A Field Left Fallow for Others to Till

THE UNTIMELY DEATH of Michel Foucault in 1984 left unfinished his influential and controversial multivolume The History of Sexuality. Indeed, volumes 2 and 3 appeared on bookshop shelves in Paris only a few days before his death. The fourth volume, entitled Les Aveux de la chair (Confessions of the flesh) and devoted to the discourse of sexuality in late ancient Christianity, remains at Foucault's request unpublished. 1 In the intervening years since the publication of volumes 2 and 3, The History of Sexuality has been the object of intense engagement and critique, and it has left its imprint on a wide body of scholarship and inquiry. Whether one greets Foucault's History with enthusiasm or suspicion, its impact is undeniable. This special issue of the Journal of the History of Sexuality is devoted to exploring some of the Jewish and Christian sources from the period Foucault sought to explore in his fourth volume and thereby to engaging imaginatively in a continuation of Foucault's work--a continuation that, at important moments, necessarily includes some measure of critique. This introduction attempts to articulate a theoretical response to Foucault and his critics as a framework for reading the essays included in this issue. [End Page 357]