Foucault and Truffaut: Power and Social Control in French Society
Both Michel Foucault and Truffaut's depiction of a disciplinary society
are nearly identical. But Truffaut's interpretation sees more room for freedom
within the disciplinary society. The difference stems from Foucault's belief
that the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there
is no escape from this type of control. Foucault's work deals mostly with
"power" and his conception of it. Like Nietzsche, Foucault sees power not as a
fixed quantity of physical force, but instead as a stream of energy flowing
through all aspects of society, its power harnesses itself in regulating the
behavior of individuals, the systems of knowledge, a societies institutions, and
every interaction between people.
Foucault in Discipline and Punish, applies this notion of power in
tracing the rise of the prison system in France and the rise of other coercive
institutions such as monasteries,......
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