An Analysis Of Dead Poets Society In Light Of Disciplinary Power Theory

Graduated from Northwestern University, the American writer, journalist and reporter N.H. Kleinbaum once presented the world with a masterpiece Dead Poets Society, a namesakeadapted from a movie by screenwriter Tom Schulman and director Peter Weir which has beenpublished in83languages. In this novel, N. H. Kleinbaum praised the beauty of literaturewith the poetic dwelling of human beings through her detailed narration of the clashesbetween the established system of Welton Academy, much respected by the locals for its starkdiscipline and high admission rates and the utterly discrepant teaching methodology broughtby Mr Keating.Ever since its publication, this novel has been carefully examined, mainly with suchapproaches as post-modernism, hierarchy of needs, the psychological analysis of educationand film comparisons, etc. This thesis, instead, focuses on the disciplinary power in educationthat has been highlighted by N. H. Kleinbaum herself in her novel as well with the elaboratedescription of four students. As to this point, the disciplinary power theory of the worldrenowned philosopher Michel Foucault, provides the theoretical framework for the wholearchitecture.This thesis adopts Foucault’s disciplinary theory in Discipline and Punish for the analysisof the disciplinary techniques; the resistances of the disciplined body and the possible ways toimprove the educational methodology in Dead Poets Society. It is divided into six parts,consisting of the introduction, four main chapters and a conclusion.The introduction gives brief background information of the famous writer N. H.Kleinbaum and her influential work Dead Poets Society. It also reviews world-wideresearches and comments on this novel, and then it points out the significance of the study on Dead Poets Society: to expose various forms of powers pervasive in schools by employingFoucault’s view on power interpreted in his Discipline and Punish; to explore ways as how toupgrade the teaching methodology drawing support from Foucault’s “partial struggle” and“aesthetics of existence”.The first chapter serves as the theoretical basis of this thesis. It gives a brief introductionof Michel Foucault, his theories and thoughts, especially the three disciplinary techniquesproposed in Discipline and Punish, including hierarchical observation, normalizing judgmentand examination with emphasis laid on the fact that while Foucault’s research does not simplyfocus on the transformation between the disciplined body and the party who executesdisciplinary power, more importantly he explores the eternal resistance against disciplinarypower. Finally, this chapter offers in hand two constructive proposals to improve oureducation based on Foucault’s theory of “partial struggle” and “aesthetics of existence”.The second chapter analyses how the three disciplinary techniques are conducted in thedisciplinary institutions. Foucault proposes that the three disciplinary techniques—hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and examination can well normalize thedisciplined body. In Dead Poets Society, the hierarchical observation of the students mainlycomes from the traditional education, the teacher’s intelligence and the parental discourse.Additionally, the normalization comes from the normalizing judgment in time and languageof the school and the teachers. The examination of the teachers and the students mainly comesfrom evaluation and tests. The demonstration of the three techniques depicts in a vividmanner how the power is executed.The third chapter analyzes the resistance against the school’s disciplinary power of MrKeating and the four major individual students. Foucault argues that where there is power,there is resistance and that the resistance is an essential of his theory of disciplinary power. InDead Poets Society, the sources of resistance are mainly: Mr Keating, who breaks the stereotype of the Welton Academy; Neil, who excels as a student yet wants to pursue the idealof being an actor; Todd, who endures great pressure and is eager for love; Charlie, who is atrouble maker but longs for the truth and justice; Knox, who is bold enough to chase after agirl. They challenge the disciplinary power with resistance, which is in turn the prerequisitefor the development of the disciplinary power.The last chapter states the punishment on the teacher and the students in Dead PoetsSociety. It also tries to find ways out using Foucault’s theory of “partial struggle” and“aesthetics of existence” in a bid to avoid the wrong punishment and better the educationenvironment of schools. Foucault believes that people can coexist by embracing partialstruggle and that emancipation is the coordination between power and resistance since there isno such thing as power vacuum in our society. Furthermore, Foucault also notes that theaesthetics of existence itself serves an aesthetic end. And that only by becoming the choice ofaesthetics can people at last be emancipated from the power. Students are thus renderedhuman. That is why at the end of Dead Poets Society, the four individuals are enlightenedunder Mr Keating, through which two possibilities are offered for improving education.With the analysis and discussions in the above chapters, conclusions are made that theschool is a disciplinary venue, a prison, where everyone is manipulated by the disciplinarypower. If anyone fails to conform to any particular rule or regulation, he or she will becorrected or even punished so as to achieve the purpose of normalization. This formidabledisciplinary power, however, is doomed to be challenged and resisted in the very place whereit is practiced as is best illustrated at the end of the Dead Poets Society: students all rise andaddress Mr Keating as Captain, indicating that the light of liberty has been lit since that verymoment.