Foucault And Truffaut: Power And Social Control In French Society :: essays research papers

Foucault and Truffaut Power and Social Control in French c everyerBoth Michel Foucault and Truffauts depiction of a disciplinary parliamentary laware nigh identical. But Truffauts interpretation sees more(prenominal) room for freedomwithin the disciplinary orderliness. The difference stems from Foucaults beliefthat the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and thereis no escape from this type of control. Foucaults work deals generally with" office" and his conception of it. Like Nietzsche, Foucault sees power not as afixed quantity of physical force, but instead as a stream of energy flowingthrough all aspects of hunting lodge, its power harnesses itself in regulating thebehavior of individuals, the corpses of knowledge, a societies institutions, andevery interaction between people.Foucault in Discipline and Punish, applies this notion of power intracing the rise of the prison house system in France and the rise of other coerciveinstitutions s uch as monasteries, the army, mental asylums, and othertechnologies. In his work Foucault exposes how seemingly benign or evenreformist institutions such as the modern prison system (versus the stocks, andscaffolds) are technologies that are typical of the modern, painless, friendly,and impersonal coercive tools of the modern world. In fact the success of thesetechnologies stems from their ability to appear unobtrusive and humane. Theseprisons Foucault goes on to rationalize like many institutions in post 1700thcentury society withdraw those that society deems abnormal. This isolation seeksto attack the souls of people in order to overleap them similar to how thetorture and brutality of pre 1700th century society sought to hulk thephysical bodies of prisoners. In Foucaults interpretation freedom from thepervasive influence of "power" is impossible. Because his conception of "power"exists not just in individual institutions of society like prisons but insteadexist s in the structure of society and more importantly in peoples thoughtsystems, escape from social control is impossible. Foucault in the last chaptertalks about how even the reforms in the system invite been co-opted to further thegoals of the state. Instead of a lessening of social control Foucault sees thatthe technologies vary from the wheels and gallows of the 17th century to thedisciplinary society of the 19th century to the acclivitous carceral city of thefuture. In this carceral city the dispersion of power will be complete. Thetechnologies of control will emanate from all parts of society, "walls, space,institution, rules, and discourse."Truffauts interpretation of society and its future is much more upbeat.Although like Foucault he sees the technologies of the disciplinary society asinsidious social control mechanisms.