MDST*1030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: John Berger, Male Gaze, Human Body Weight
Week 5: Modernity, Spectatorship, Discourse & Power, The Gaze
Michel Foucault
-Discourse: a group of statements that provide a means for talking, and a way of representing
knowledge, that produce meaningful statements and regulate what can be spoken in different
periods of time.
-discourse is a body of knowledge that defines and limits what can be said about something
-Ex. law, education, criminality, religion, sexuality, technology, madness
Madness & the institutionalization of madness.
-In the past those who were ‘mad’ were part of society, serving in whatever way they could but
accepted as part of the fabric of the community. (Think village idiot)
-Science and psychiatry of the modern era madness became medicalized, pathologized and seen
as a polluting factor that had to be removed from society > the insane asylum.
-Foucault argues that madness is defined through the varying discourses of medicine, law,
education and so on.
-Terms like hysterical and schizophrenia did not emerge until the discourse of madness or mental
illness was established.
Concepts introduced by Foucault
-Panopticism, power/knowledge, biopower
-Jeremy Bentham proposed the panopticon as a circular building
with an observation tower in the centre of an open space
surrounded by an outer wall. This wall would contain cells for
occupants. This design would increase security by facilitating more
effective surveillance. Residing within cells flooded with light,
occupants would be readily distinguishable and visible to an official
invisibly positioned in the central tower. Conversely, occupants
would be invisible to each other, with concrete walls dividing their
cells. Although usually associated with prisons, the panoptic style of
architecture might be used in other institutions with surveillance needs, such as schools,
factories, or hospitals.
-What matters is the was the imagined spectator fixed in the mind of the inmate. Imagining
being watched kept them in line. The concept of the panopticon leads to self-regulation.
-Our own system of surveillance keeps us in line (photo ID, fingerprints, DNA, airport checks and
especially cameras)
Power/Knowledge
-Monarchies and Totalitarian systems use overt displays of punishment such as public
executions. In modern societies, people are self-regulating and citizens actively participate in
social norms
and adhere to the dominant social values.
-Power is achieved through cooperation instead of coercion. (Apes punishing the ‘new ape’ who
transgresses).
-Foucault saw modern power not as a conspiracy among leaders or as authoritarian rule by
individuals but as a system enacted among all strata of society and effective in normalizing
bodies in order to maintain relations of dominance and subordination.
-Certain types of knowledge are validated through social institutions such a press, medicine and
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Document Summary
Week 5: modernity, spectatorship, discourse & power, the gaze. Ex. law, education, criminality, religion, sexuality, technology, madness. In the past those who were mad" were part of society, serving in whatever way they could but accepted as part of the fabric of the community. (think village idiot) Science and psychiatry of the modern era madness became medicalized, pathologized and seen as a polluting factor that had to be removed from society > the insane asylum. Foucault argues that madness is defined through the varying discourses of medicine, law, education and so on. Terms like hysterical and schizophrenia did not emerge until the discourse of madness or mental illness was established. Jeremy bentham proposed the panopticon as a circular building with an observation tower in the centre of an open space surrounded by an outer wall. This design would increase security by facilitating more effective surveillance.
