The Spatialized Power In The Archbishop’s Ceiling By Foucault’s "Space-Power" Theory

Arthur Miller(1915-2005), the winner of Pulitzer Prize, the Drama Critics’Circle Award and Tony Award, is a universally renowned American modern dramatist. Arthur Miller, together with Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams, ranks as one of the three great American dramatists in the20th century. Arthur Miller, as one of the twentieth century’s greatest realistic playwright, has written for the theatre for about fifty years and his literary production include other genres such as radio and film scripts, novels, short fictions, theatrical essays, travel journals and an autobiography. Especially Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons and A View from the Bridge earned him international popular and critical acclaim.Accordingly, there are a large number of studies like reviews, papers and journal articles on Miller and his works from a variety of perspectives in America and in other countries all over the world. In China, the perspectives and approaches of Miller and Miller’s works have also been extended largely, varying from theatrical receptions, comparative analyses between his plays and some Chinese plays, gender studies, cross-cultural perspective to interdisciplinary approaches, etc. Chinese researchers have paid a lot of attention to Miller’s influential works, especially Death of a Salesman and overlooked his other works. In terms of the study of Death of a Salesman, most of discussions are about Miller’s views of tragedy, his presentation of moral values and humanities, his ethnic identity, his play writing techniques, the disillusion of the American dream and the analysis of the major characters.The thesis is intended to make a tentative exploration of the spatialized power in Miller’s The Archbishop’s Ceiling from the perspective of Michel Foucault’s "space-power" theory. The topic of power was central to his philosophical thinking concerning the relations between individuals, groups, institutions and the society. From his many publications, he conveys the fundamental idea about power, that is, a place to observe the power in practice is the relations between the individual and the society, especially its institutions. In Michel Foucault’s studies of power, there is another important concept that can not be ignored to understand his power related theories and that concept is "space", the key for Michel Foucault’s methodology and analysis of power. Through "space" or the concern of the spatial relevance, Michel Foucault was able to make an analysis of "power" and the mechanism of "power"The play is set in a house of the former residence of the archbishop allocated by the government to Marcus, an important character in the play, in a communist-controlled European country. The play presents what happens in the house to four main characters, Adrian, Marcus, Sigmund and Maya and the conflicts among them in the oppressive society with the presumption that there is a microphone somewhere in the house. The research of the spatialized power are to be conducted in three aspects as follows:the physical establishment of spatial expression of power; the power intrusion into characters in the space and their resistance; power relations by character relational structure in the space.In the first aspect, the concept of "panopticon" mentioned by Foucault’s in his Discipline and Punish is employed to analyze the enclosed physical space of the play, the "visibility" of the enclosed physical space and the constant overseeing "gaze" of the physical space as well. Resistance coexists with power.In the second aspect, the paper explores the spatialized power in the house through the resistance from the four main characters in the play. The thinking, words, behaviors of characters and the exchanges among them are largely influence by the intrusion of power and accordingly, characters live with and resist against the power intrusion, consciously and unconsciously. Characters vary in their relation to the oppressive power. In the third aspect, the thesis moves on to the analysis of the power relations by looking at the interpersonal relationships among characters in the enclosed space. It is hoped that the analysis of the spatialized power in The Archbishop’s Ceiling would be constructive for further study in this area and enrich the interpretation and appreciation of Miller’s works.