Discipline Antl Power: A Foucaultdian Interpretation Of The Shawshank Redemption

Adapted from Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and ShawshankRedemption, the film The Shawshank Redemption presents the institutionalized livingcondition of most tamed inmates in the prison which is considered to be one of themost ideal places for disciplinary power to be brought into full play. Living in such apanoptic prison where surveillance is all-pervasive, the majority of convicts havebeen institutionalized and become docile physically and mentally. However, theprotagonist Andy is an exception who never gives up fighting against disciplinarypower with both never-dying hope and knowledge, and finally escapes from theShawshank. Based on Foucault’s power theory, this thesis interprets the operation ofdisciplinary power as well as its resistance in this movie.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis consists of threechapters. Chapter one briefly analyzes the context of this dissertation including abackground survey of this film and Foucault’s disciplinary theory. Chapter twomakes a detailed study of the operation of disciplinary power in The ShawshankRedemption from the analysis of disciplinary subjects and disciplinary objects.Chapter three focuses on realization of the discipline and resistance to disciplinarypower mainly from the protagonist Andy. Since, according to Foucault, power andresistance are coexistent in the power relation, Andy’s resistance to disciplinarypower is also an indispensable part of this thesis. It is hoped that that this thesis canhelp us not only figure out how people in modern society is disciplined by power, butalso get a better understanding of the operation of micro-power.