Foucault - Post Class

One reading/theorist that I connected well with this week was Michel Foucault. His writings on power and knowledge go hand in hand with what we've been learning this semester in both my CMC and Sociology classes. Discipline and Punish focuses on descriptions of public execution, power, ruling, discipline, sexuality, ideology, etc. In his writing, Foucault talks about two different Technologies of Punishment. The first, "Manarchial Punishment" relates to a repression of individuals  through brutal (and public) displays of execution and torture...a topic that has been discussed by several other theorists. The second, "Disciplinary Punishment"gives those who are higher up on the social ladder power over the prisoner and consequently the length of a prisoners stay in prison depends on these authority figures. 

Foucault is a structuralist who claims that power has been practiced 'transnationally', he urges for a new previously mentioned power of discipline.  He touches on concepts like justice and equality in our society and just exactly who comes to prevail through those ideas. He observes others so that he can gain more knowledge about people and their tendencies.

The last thing I liked from Foucault was his comparison of modern society to Bentham's "Panopticon" design for prisons which enabled a single guard to watch over many prisoners while remaining unseen. Michel claims ancient prisons have been replaced by clear and visible ones. However, he warns the reader that visibility is a "tarp". Through this notion of visibility he claims modern society exercises its controlling systems of power and knowledge. This sort of tracking enables institutions to keep tabs on citizens throughout their lives. Thats where his whole idea of 'carceral continuum' comes in I think too.