A Study Of The Masters From The Perspective Of Foucault's Subject Theory

C.P.Snow was identified as a distinguished British realistic novelist in the 1950 s.The Masters was recognized as one of his best works.This novel described different controversies at Cambridge University when the staff were electing a new master from 13 board members.Through the analysis of The Masters,the thesis discloses that the subjects have been oppressed from other aspects and are unable to be free.In The Masters,Crawford sets rational thinking as his morality in real life;Brown and Chrystal live under the undistinguished power;and Jago suffers from the conflict between personal sensibility and ambition.They pursue rationality,power and ambition,but they are so controlled by rationality,power and ambition at the same time that they can't be free.This thesis focuses on the behavioral and psychological content of the main characters based on the subject theory of Foucault.Through the analysis,the thesis finds that Crawford is smooth in the disciplinary process and eventually wins the election;Brown and Chrystal experience twists and turns in the disciplinary process,constantly adjusting themselves to adapt to the disciplinary environment;and Jago struggles between himself and disciplinary rules,being eventually eliminated by the disciplinary rules and defeated in the election.They start to be disciplined by the knowledge,power and ambition in the same situation,but end up with the different results.This shows individuals in the discipline system are not always disciplined successfully.In the last of the paper,the thesis conducts a comparison between Crawford and Jago,and a comparison of Brown,Chrystal and Jago in terms of their behaviors and mental activities.The comparisons attempt to prove that although subjects in disciplinary systems are suppressed in emotion unconsciously,the emotions and intensity of emotions of subjects will affect the disciplinary processes on subjects and will lead to different disciplinary results.Foucault developed the knowledge-power theory.And three types of people who are affected by disciplinary system have been verified.The comparisons in this paper will disclose reasons why people fall into different categories according to Foucault's theory.