On Tue, 3 Dec 1996 Pushkara@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Help!
> I am giving a colloquium to finish up my BA in May. One of the books of
> my focus is Foucault's Discipline and Punish. My focus is on Foucault's use
> of the science of subjugation by learning all that can be learned about man
> by incarcerating him and observing him as a captive in the penal system. Do
> I have the correct slant on this?
>
Well, yes, although I think you're missing one of the more insidious
aspects of what you call the "science of subjugation"--the docile body.
Foucault argues in Discipline and Punish that the power relation of
domination/subjugation depends upon the docility of the subjugated body.
That is, dominant discourse exercises its coercion of the subjugated "at
the level of the mechanism itself--movements, gestures, attitudes,
rapidity" (Foucault, Discipline 137). Thus, not only does dominance
assert itself externally, but eventually the docile body dominates
itself. Through an insidious process of micro-attention to movements, to
individual action, the disciplinary system teaches its subjects to
internalize oppression; obedience is made a part of their very biological
structure. Eventually, I think, the disciplinary system doesn't have to
work hard to learn "all that can be learned," because the docile body
volunteers itself, its information, its (co)operation...
Jacqueline Rhodes
Department of English
University of Southern Mississippi
jrhodes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~jrhodes
> Help!
> I am giving a colloquium to finish up my BA in May. One of the books of
> my focus is Foucault's Discipline and Punish. My focus is on Foucault's use
> of the science of subjugation by learning all that can be learned about man
> by incarcerating him and observing him as a captive in the penal system. Do
> I have the correct slant on this?
>
Well, yes, although I think you're missing one of the more insidious
aspects of what you call the "science of subjugation"--the docile body.
Foucault argues in Discipline and Punish that the power relation of
domination/subjugation depends upon the docility of the subjugated body.
That is, dominant discourse exercises its coercion of the subjugated "at
the level of the mechanism itself--movements, gestures, attitudes,
rapidity" (Foucault, Discipline 137). Thus, not only does dominance
assert itself externally, but eventually the docile body dominates
itself. Through an insidious process of micro-attention to movements, to
individual action, the disciplinary system teaches its subjects to
internalize oppression; obedience is made a part of their very biological
structure. Eventually, I think, the disciplinary system doesn't have to
work hard to learn "all that can be learned," because the docile body
volunteers itself, its information, its (co)operation...
Jacqueline Rhodes
Department of English
University of Southern Mississippi
jrhodes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~jrhodes