Big Brother is watching Stephen Dedalus
Big Brother is watching Stephen Dedalus
I found Foucault’s discussion of the Repressive Hypothesis (the second half of Part 2) to be the most intriguing. Foucault states that “Educators and doctors combated children’s onanism like an epidemic that needed to be eradicated,” but, rather than fixate on actually abolishing masturbation, those in a position of power created a system of suspicion and fear that one was always being watched. It seems that Foucault is affirming Orwell’s concept of Big Brother, and with good reason. This fear can be coupled with his explored notion of confession as another power mechanism and, we can see even now, that fear is an incredible power to hold over someone. Many impoverished Catholic nations throughout the world maintain strict laws against sexual disobedience, from homosexuality to condom usage, because the Pope maintains that the ancient laws of the Scripture are unchangeable law. Also, to use a fictitious example (based in fact), James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man very vividly explores the fear instilled in the young Catholic Stephen Dedalus (James Joyce):
(in discussion of the punishment of some schoolmates)
– Do you know why those fellows scut? I will tell you but you must not let on you know.
He paused for a moment and then said mysteriously:
– They were caught with Simon Moonan and Tusker Boyle in the square one night.
The fellows looked at him and asked:
– Caught?
– What doing?
Athy said:
– Smugging.
Smugging refers either to homosexual contact or mutual masturbation. Though Joyce wrote Portrait of the Artist decades before Foucault wrote History of Sexuality, this passage in particular rings true to Foucault’s writings on fear. Here, some of Stephen’s schoolmates have been caught acting in a manner that deviates from the sexual norm. They are thus punished, and Stephen, who seems to be homosexually inclined himself, ponders on this notion of being caught. Throughout Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses, which follow Stephen from his childhood into his twenties, Joyce explores sexual self repression which could, by reading Foucault, be traced back to this defining moment, when Stephen learns to fear.
Another thing I noted while reading History of Sexuality was some of Foucault’s word choice, particularly his use of “entomologized” in Part 2 in regards to “sexual deviants”:
“The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species.
So too were all those minor perverts whom nineteenth-century psychiatrist entomologized by giving them strange baptismal names.”
I find the use of this word interesting because “ento” refers to insects, and, in general, insects are not respected as animals. They are pests to be exterminated. Thus, Foucault implies that not only are those not in the norm meant to be separated and analyzed, but also wiped out and eliminated from society.
Tags: Fear, James Joyce
