ABSTRACT
Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: The Will to Knowledge examines the subject of sexuality. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault discussed changes in the Western penal system during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the most important of Foucault's ideas appears in a complex discussion he sets out halfway through Sexuality Vol. 1, regarding the ways power operates in modern societies. Foucault introduces the term "biopower" to refer to the idea, which is one of the most important concepts in his later work. In particular, biopower relates to another concept of Foucault: "governmentality". For instance, Foucault's early works, such as Madness and Civilization and The Birth of the Clinic were influenced by structuralist thought, in contrast to his later works, which could be termed poststructuralist. The text develops and voices more fully the relationship between power, knowledge, and the body that is central to all his work.
