Disciplinary Power And Resistance:a Foucaultian Interpretation Of Stephen’s Self-construction In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Some of the previous studies on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man focus on rejecting religion and patriarchal power and interpreting the personality of the character Stephen.Others concentrate on patriarchal plots,modernism and anti-modernism,aestheticism,psychoanalysis,cultural anxiety and religious matters.Although some essays refer to the influence of patriarchal power reflected in this novel,yet few essays give a specific discussion on how the disciplinary power imposes its forces on Stephen,and how Stephen realizes his self-construction.Therefore,this thesis tries to explain how the disciplinary power exerts its forces on Stephen’s body and mind,and how Stephen finally achieves his spiritual freedom and constructs himself as an artist.In this novel,Joyce gives his readers a panorama of Stephen’s self-developing consciousness and of his inner conflicts,and of how the patriarchal power exerts its forces and discipline on Stephen in different space and time.However,Stephen is not a docile and obedient object in the face of the disciplinary power,and his rebellion and struggling are necessary and inevitable with his growth.So the process of Stephen’s struggling for freedom and independence is also a process of developing his self-consciousness and self-construction.This thesis analyzes Stephen’s self-construction from the perspective of Foucault’s theory of disciplinary power.So this thesis plans to finish three tasks: the first is to present the disciplinary power which exerts its influence on Stephen’s body and mind through hierarchical observation,normalizing judgment the examination;the second is to set forth Stephen’s resisting the disciplinary powers through progressive obedience,rebellion and even self-exile,and finally Stephen successfully constructs his identity as a young artist by establishing his own aesthetics of existence.Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the author and the novel,and presents research questions and the significance of this paper.Chapter two is literature review divided into two parts: international studies and domestic studies.Internationalstudies on this novel include archetypal studies,studies on modernity and anti-modernity of the novel,studies on rebellion against the patriarchal power,psychological study and so on.Domestic studies refer to exilic theme,psychological study,national,cultural and religious theme,Stephen’s identity crisis and so on.Chapter three is critical approach,which is a brief summary of the theory of Foucault’s disciplinary power that exerts its forces on the body and mind through hierarchical observation,normalizing judgment and examination.Chapter four is the discussion which tries to answer the two research questions.The first part presents the disciplinary power from family,school and church,which exerts its forces on the character Stephen;the second part discusses Stephen’s resistance of the patriarchal power from his father,school masters and the religious authority;the third part discusses Stephen’s realization of constructing himself as an artist who finally gets rid of his sense of inferiority and handles the pressures of his existence and the demands and calls from family,church,country and friends;and Stephen finally turns his predicament into an all-inclusive artistic form that transforms his trivial existence into everlasting art.Chapter five is the conclusion: through a succession of epiphanies and revelations,Stephen has come to realize that only art is the true calling in his inner heart,because Stephen has clearly known that both his obedience to authorities and his pursuit of pleasure cannot bring him happiness and spiritual freedom.So Stephen himself makes his final declaration that his journey is to incessantly deal with the reality of experience through an artistic form,and his artistic career is to perform his aesthetic principles---trusting in “the wholeness,harmony and radiance of beauty”.Then he manages to get over his self-limiting fear of authority and law,and forms his own aesthetic theory of existence that helps him become an atypical artist who makes the experience of his daily life meaningful,truthful and beautiful.Finally,Stephen himself,as a promising young artist,devoted himself to input his predicament into an all-inclusive artistic form that transforms his trivial existence into everlasting art.