Body, As A Power Object

Michel Foucault is one of the most famous western scholars in twentieth century. In December 2, 1970, he delivered his inaugural speech "The Order of Discourse"in College de France, which indicates that he began his second study stage, the so-called "power period ". In this period, Foucault only published two books: Discipline and Punish and The Will to Knowledge. This paper is mainly based on these two books, to comb Foucault's analyses on the body and power relations.Body, in Foucault's view, has been always existed as the object of power. However, in the three different mechanisms of power, its status and role are different. In mechanism of sovereignty, the body is the object of power and destructed directly by the power. This destruction is not only relentless, and even some of the ingredients to show off. Torture is the most prominent example of the destruction. And through this destruction, power of sovereign proves their inviolability. In the mechanism of disciplinary power, the power begins to demand both docile and useful body. Discipline and detail are the most basic means to achieve this purpose. And the panopticon is the most prominent example of this power mechanism. In the mechanism of bio-power, which appears later, power no longer treats the crowd as individuals, but starts to pay attention to "population ", by managing the population to achieve control of the body. And this time, sex is the connection point of population and body, so it becomes the channel which power often passes by.Foucault also pointed out that the three mechanisms of power do not substitute each other, but in some way to engage in modern society. Meanwhile, the function of killing which belongs to sovereignty mechanism is primarily performs by racism in modern society. Clarifying Foucault's analyses on body in the different mechanisms of power, we can go back to review our own literary studies, and can open more space for further research.