>>Aaron wrote:
<<Dear Fellow Foucault People,
I'm hastily writing an essay on a foucaultian perspective on power
structures in Orwell's 1984. I'm basically basing the work on the
panopticon, and the way in which people are watched and controlled in the=
Oceanic society. The problem is that
I think the power structures in 1984 are too open and apparent to discuss=
on a Foucaultian perspective. Does anyone have any suggestions, or know
about any texts that would be relevent to Orwell?
Thanks,
Aaron<<<
I'd say there was a lot of scope for a Foucaultian discussion of 1984. =
I've always been interested in the differential practices employed with
regard to the workers and the proles: the proles are just confined to the=
ir
ghettos and are basically marginalised and patrolled. Noone really cares
what they think so as long as they stick to their alloted areas they're o=
k.
If not, then they could be dealt with severely and terminally. This seems=
to me to be an example of sovereign power in which power sets out limits,=
the crossing of which constitute transgerssion.
With regard to the workers like Winston, the state is far more interested=
in shaping their subjectivity and aligning it with its own political
projects. This resonates with Foucault's concept of governmentality excep=
t
that he was concerned with how this process occurred in modern democracie=
s
but I think that the overall concept still holds good for analytic purpos=
es
here. The means of shaping subjectivity involves 2 devices which pertain=
to Foucault: the panoptical disciplinary arrangement of the ubiquitous TV=
=
and the control of the means of representation by the project of newspeak=
in which only certain representations become possible.
Overall, them I'd say there was a good deal of material for you to addres=
s
Foucaultian issues of power (and resistance). Good luck.
Mark