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Power In Foucault's Panopticon

1147 Words5 Pages

The world described by Frederick Douglass in his autobiographical writing shows a different image of America. After the proclamation of independence from Great Britain, slavery seems to become “the Other” and brings about a change in the way of perceiving America and the American dream. This work will attempt to provide a clear understanding of this shift of perspective. In the first part of the paper we will address the concept of power by making reference to one of Michel Foucault’s work and then we will discuss about “the Panopticon”, using critical sources pertaining to the same author. The second part of the paper will make use of the concepts already discussed and apply them to the narrative, disclosing the existing power relations as well as the mechanisms of creating and maintaining them. The final part will offer a conclusion on the issues raised in our paper. The basic principles on which the American Dream is founded were developed in the 17th Century. Based on the ideas and values of equality, liberty, justice and fairness, the Declaration of Independence guaranteed the American people …show more content…

Starting from Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, which was a towerlike structure fashioned so that it would allow simultaneous surveillance of prisoners, Foucault describes how prisons and other institutions continue the panoptic tradition. The Panopticon would make possible the gaze of the warden upon the prisoners to be experimented as perpetual and inescapable. Through the use of psychological manipulation or physical violence the prisoners are made aware of the ever- present gaze and over time the external surveillance is internalized. Although Douglass’s writings precede Foucault’s by more than a century, Cynthia Nilson argues that “Douglass’s vivid descriptions of life as a slave in a racialized society parallel and corroborate Foucault’s

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