A Study Of The Pirate Narrative In Treasure Island From Foucault's Power Theory

Robert Louis Stevenson(1850-1894)is one of the most influential writers in the late nineteenth century in Britain.Treasure Island(1883)is regarded by Stevenson as his first novel and establishes Stevenson's reputation in British literature.Treasure Island is a classic novel about the pirates.It focuses on the power relations behind the characters' conflicts and delineates how the pirates led by Silver contest the treasure on the island and finally fail.Centering on the pirate narrative in Treasure Island,this thesis works from the perspective of Foucault's power theory to explore the operation of disciplinary power on the pirates,the pirates' resistance to the power and the reorganization of power relations in the process of the pirates' treasure hunt.It aims to reveal the dynamic power relations behind the pirates' failure and the pirates' living predicaments in the context of British imperial crisis in the late nineteenth century.The introduction gives an overview of Robert Louis Stevenson and the researches on this novel at home and abroad.It briefly introduces important concepts in Michel Foucault's theory of power and points out the feasibility of the study from the perspective of power theory.Chapter one mainly discusses two techniques of the disciplinary power operated on the pirates and emphasizes the cabin party's control of the pirates.Forone thing,the cabin party apply hierarchical observation to implement surveillance on the pirates;for another,by way of normalizing judgement,the cabin party effectively prevent and suppress the pirates' intentional disruption.Foucault holds that power produces resistance,therefore,chapter two analyzes the pirates' resistance to the power.On the one hand,the conflicts between the pirates and the cabin party intensify,which causes the pirates' transition from insidious disobedience to open resistance to the power.On the other hand,that Silver plays double game between the cabin party and the pirates leads to an internal strife among the pirates and later an internal split of the leadership.Nevertheless,the pirates' rebellion works to no avail and fails.That is because the reorganization of power relations re-disciplines the pirates,which chapter three further explains.First,Livesey and other members of the cabin party win over the useful pirate forces for cooperation and reverse the situation of the pirates' rebellion.Second,the cabin party take decisive measures to discipline and punish the uncooperative pirates,which declines the pirates' forces.In this way,the power relations between the cabin party and the pirates are reorganized.The cabin party regain their leadership,while the pirates are controlled again by the cabin party.Finally,the pirates fail to obtain the treasure.The conclusion gives a summary to the conflicts of power relations behind the pirate narrative.The pirates are core characters in TreasureIsland;their changeable behaviors and failure reflect their inferior status in the power relations and reveal that the disciplinary power manifests a firm control of the pirates.Therefore,through an analysis of the power relations,this thesis reveals the pirates' living predicaments in the late nineteenth century;they were marginalized in the society.To some extent,the decline of the pirates' status reflects that in the late nineteenth century,pirates were no longer a positive force for the British Empire to expand its sea power,and that the glory days of the pirates' maritime expansion for Britain have been past history.