This might be a silly suggestion, but I wonder if the movie Logan's Run (1976) might be relevant.
DM
On 25/07/2005, at 7:19 PM, M. Karskens wrote:
DM
On 25/07/2005, at 7:19 PM, M. Karskens wrote:
Kelly is right about the population point, but Foucault's point is that the new governementality powers or mechanisms are directed to populations by taking care of and registrating individuals as such; the population-issue focuses on people as Gattungswesen, but does not turn them into a collective being. See the pastoral power, the paternal power and care, and even the Staatsraison. And see the way in which Foucault drops the population point in his course Naissance de la biopolitique
Movies are about individuals within or against the (collective) current. Only some utopian or science fiction films, but most of all documentaries are sometimes about populations as such. A good example, better than 1984 or 2001, of the individual in and against modern domination technologies is Brazil.
machiel karskens
At 16:17 22-7-2005, you wrote:
Just some thoughts as the conversation unfolds...
I'm pleased to see that my query has not only generated suggestions, but
also some debate. I originally posed the question because I had a difficult
time thinking of films that went beyond the theme of
surveillance/discipline. The latter may be useful for some kinds of
illustration, but one of the things that I think can be problematic about
them is that they tend to frame power as juridical and negative, that they
fail to capture the productive aspects of power. Similarly, I'm concerned
(as others have been) that these films tend to focus on individuals in
relation to government conspiracies, whereas biopolitics is arguably about
neither of these.
I have no particular love for the film, but I think that the Matrix works
fairly well as an illustration of biopolitics--it's got the level of the
population in there, and (pace some mythic hero hokum) the characters'
agency is not limited, but rather predicated on, the manner in which their
subjectivities have been constituted by power.
I myself tend to prefer to err on the other side from the conspiracy stuff,
to focus on films in which there's no clear or immediate connection between
individuals and larger institutional contexts. I think Todd Haynes's Safe
is an apt in this regard, and Fight Club is similar. Among other things, I
think that what sets these films apart is that the plot turns on the
"impersonal" qualities of their protagonists in a way that communicates with
biopolitics fairly well. Since I'm interested in the productivity of
biopower, I also like the idea of films that portray "productive" practices
of the self, or productive relationships between technologies and the body.
It's another film I don't particularly enjoy, but Tetsuo: Iron Man, comes to
mind for this.
Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: foucault-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:foucault-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of denoix
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 3:26 AM
To: Mailing list
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] biopolitics on film
I was also surprised to see Dogville mentioned here. In fact , I wonder if
there are any movies that "illustrate" the theme. The examples I've seen
did't convince me. Mostly paranoid movies or individuals resisting. Maybe it
is more interesting to look at literature. Eco's name of the Rose was said
to be connected, I've just read Saramago, Hervé Guibert was close to him and
I remember Foucault talking about Ziniview Alexander...
d
appropriate sOn 22-07-2005 09:00, "Mark Kelly" <mgekelly@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have to disagree with Machiel here - biopower is the government of
> populations. Foucault is extremely precise about the relation of
> biopower to discipline in Society Must Be Defended. The Truman Show is
> very interesting from a Foucauldian point of view, but I don't see a
> connection to biopower in Foucault's sense. Most of the other
> suggestion are, as Machiel correctly points, related to discipline not
> biopower, although of course discipline is in itself related to
> biopower. I don't see the relation of Dogville to biopower, either.
> Seemed rather Nietzschean to me, but Foucauldian themes I didn't
> discern. The fact is films are generally based at the level of
> individual protagonists, meaning populations rarely figure in them as
> such.
>
> Mark
>
> On 7/22/05, samata biswas <bsamata@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> machiel,
>> i think you were referring to "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey in
>> the lead.
>>
>> On 7/21/05, M. Karskens <mkarskens@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> The point of most answers is that discipline and biopolitcs almost
>>> are identified. In my opinion biopolitics is much more caring,
>>> pastoral and nomalizing than discipline. Dogville is a perfect
>>> example, and also the film about the boy/man who lives in a tv soap
>>> (I don't remember the name)
>>>
>>> machiel karskens
>>>
>>>
>>> At 18:26 19-7-2005, you wrote:
>>>> Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Das Experiment' is a good one. A take on the
>>>> Stanford Prison Experiment. German with English subtitles.
>>>>
>>>> Simone
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Foucault-L mailing list
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Prof. Machiel Karskens
>>> social and political philosophy
>>> Faculty of Philosophy
>>> Radboud University Nijmegen - The Netherlands
>>>
>>>
>>
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Prof. Machiel Karskens
social and political philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy
Radboud University Nijmegen - The Netherlands
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