Discipline,Punishment And Resistance:A Study Of Schindler's Ark From The Perspective Of Disciplinary Power Theory

Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark records a true story of rescuing the persecuted Jewish people in Poland during World War II.This thesis analyzes the novel from the perspective of disciplinary power theory,aiming to demonstrate the operation of Nazi power including discipline,surveillance,punishment as well as the resistance against Nazi power.This thesis consists of five parts: Introduction,Chapters One to Three and Conclusion.Introduction includes a brief account of Thomas Keneally and Schindler's Ark,the introduction to Michel Foucault and disciplinary power theory as well as literature review.Chapter One focuses on the discipline for the SS men and the Jewish people.The bodies and souls of the SS men were disciplined by Nazi power,so the SS men took the persecution of the Jewish people as an honorable act.Nazi power disciplined the Jewish people's bodies as docile and useful in order to realize their economic values.To maximize economic values,the SS men took a series of measures,such as deprivation of possessions,enclosure,the composition of forces,etc.Chapter Two explores panoptic surveillance and punishment of the Jewish people.They were under panoptic surveillance no matter where they were.It was the feeling of being surveilled that threatened them and reminded them to be docile,otherwise they would be punished for their indocility.Public execution was used to arouse the feeling of terror and reactivate the authority of power.The whole punishment event was barbarous and absurd.Chapter Three analyzes the resistance against Nazi power.Different people resisted against the authority in different ways,but the same was that all risked their own lives saving the persecuted.Especially,Oskar Schindler,he could have been an outsider,but the goodness and righteousness in his body drove him to save the Jewish people.Conclusion summarizes this thesis as a whole.This thesis demonstrates the operation of Nazi power and reveals the atrocities of it.Nazi power disciplines the SS men to control their mind and make them obey orders docilely while the discipline for the Jewish people is to get the economic values of their docile bodies.Indocility leads to punishment,but the punishment for the Jewish people is cruel,arbitrary and absurd.Although the resistance against authority is always hard and dangerous,the successful rescue suggests that resistance can be effective.