On Powered Body In The Movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The American film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a screen adaptation of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by American novelist Ken Kesey. The movie tells a story of the inhumane treatment of patients in a national mental hospital of USA in 1960s. There's a lot of academic research on this movie both in China and overseas, but the research in the perspectives of body is rare. This thesis applies Michel Foucault's theory of body to conduct a textual analysis of presentation of powered body in this movie, discussing how power acts on body in the film.Powered body presents a relation between power and body. This thesis, according to different forms of power's effect on body, subdivide powered body into three parts—physical body, body activity and soul. The thesis is divided into three chapters in accordance with the three parts. Chapter One describes power's direct effect on physical body in the film, including compulsory medication, electric shock and lobotomy; and then discusses its meaningfulness with Foucault's theory. Chapter Two is power's control of body activity in the film. Control of activity is more civilized and more commonly used than direct body penalty. It's the main way in which power acts on body. The mental hospital controls patients'bodies by means of confinement, schedule and norm. Chapter Three studies the important role of controlling soul in power-body relation. The"soul"of docile bodies becomes the focus of reform.This thesis studies the relationship between body and power in the film from three aspects—physical body, body activity and soul, and puts forward the conclusion that the patients'bodies in the movie are powered bodies. That is an attempt enriching the study of Foucault's theory of body and theory of power.