Samuel Fuller‘s Shock Corridor (1963): A Foucauldian Analysis of Madness
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mouloud Mammeri University
Abstract
This dissertation will investigate Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor (1963) from a Foucauldian perspective. The dialectic of power and knowledge forms the gist of his critical theory that tries to explain how different modern social institutions, like mental hospitals, aim at controlling individuals. Since some movies reflect the real state of societies to a large extent, Shock Corridor (1963) will be analysed from a Foucauldian stance to better understand how authorities exert power to produce docile bodies. Indeed, I have divided my work into two main chapters; the first one deals with the historical background of US during 1960s and the medicalized asylum, while the second chapter emphases on power relation and resistance in Shock Corridor in order to determine the extent to which Samuel Fuller’s work meets Foucault ideas, this dissertation will follow Foucault’s theory of power as explained in his book “Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison (1991)”. Foucault’s concepts like Discipline, surveillance, panopticon and resistance are to be discussed in this dissertation to explain how the patients in Shock Corridor are treated badly and aimed to become docile and conformist and how resistance is created from the abuse of power. Throughout our investigation, we have found that Shock Corridor reflects Foucault’s ideas of the omnipresence of power and highlighted the way resistance is created as a as a response to power.
Description
58p. : Ill. ; 30cm(+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Shock Corridor, Samuel Fuller, Michel Foucault, power, discipline, surveillance, resistance
Citation
Literature et Approche Interdiscplinaire.