The Spectacle of the Scaffold

by Michel Foucault

Foucault’s writings on power and control in social institutions have made him one of the modern era’s most influential thinkers. Here he argues that punishment has gone from being mere spectacle to becoming an instrument of systematic domination over individuals in society – not just of our bodies, but our souls.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, French Literature, Essays, Sociology, Politics, History

112 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.
Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV, at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser, and at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where he earned degrees in philosophy and psychology. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, he produced The Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966), publications that displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called "archaeology".
From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France, a membership he retained until his death. He also became active in several left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and human rights abuses and for penal reform. Foucault later published Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods that emphasized the role that power plays in society.
Foucault died in Paris from complications of HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from complications of the disease. His partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory.

Reviews

[scarlett :P · Rating 3 out of 5]

subject to change depending on what i get in my medieval performance coursework.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can imagine the effect of reading this in the 18th century would be the 21st century equivalent to that time when statistics about pornography ruining teenage brains were headline news

[Ugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bits of this are pretty interesting, for example a part about how any evidence against a person, even if circumstantial, used to be sufficient for that person to be considered at least a little guilty - not just more likely to eventually be found guilty, but actually guilty already. Guilty enough for punishment and judicial torture aimed at uncovering further evidence of further guilt. Also, a part about how the accused was never allowed to know the nature of his supposed crime or the evidence against him, which reminded me of Kafka.
But I'm not sure what Foucault's point(s?) really was, and a lot of stuff about the physical body being the focus of the punishment etc left me cold - maybe it went over my head, I dunno. I didn't find the writing very clear, and I wasn't even hungover for some of the parts that I read. Maybe I'm too dumb to get it, or maybe there isn't much to get. Either way, this is my verdict, now tell me yours.

[Roisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at executions and the spectacle of public punishments. Foucault in his way questions such behaviour and practice. With the current political climate these essays make interesting reading and show the power of such events to incite emotions in the viewer. It is split in two parts, exposing the motives behind capital punishment. The first, 'The Body of the Condemned' opens with a very violent description of an execution in 1757 in Damiens. This essay focuses on the condemned and how prisoners were publicly presented. Despite being aware of the methods of execution of the past in Europe, this account discussed by Foucault still challenges. It has the power to shock and query our sense of justice. The second, 'The Spectacle of the Scaffold' looks at such presentation and the relationship with the watcher, the audience, what public executions are for. He does talk about the soul and this aspect is less interesting. The rest however, is very good.

[Peter Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting observations on what formed the real motivations behind capital punishment and torture as punishment that over three decades later are still interesting to ponder in the context say of what wikileaks is revealing about Iraq. Also liked his analysis on what punishment has become in liberal societies today and how that might be simultaneously failing yet still over oppressing the soul. The only weakness of the book was an over analysis of what is the soul which to me seemed repetitive and meandering – though I am sure it probably read better in the original French :-)

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am against the death penalty on the grounds that I do not believe it is justice delivered, but revenge; and the only people truly punished are the loved ones of the condemned. This book demonstrates that capital – and even corporal – punishment was always meant to exact revenge rather than deliver justice with an escalation of the horror taking place upon the scaffold to try to make the punishment fit the crime.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this little book scared me then I wonder what reading the oeuvre would be like.

[Karl Hallbjörnsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

too short

[Samelu Binumcole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very approachable Foucault.

Punishment, law, justice and the development of society under it´s sovereign.

[José · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite neat and gives one a good impression of what Foucault's gist is in regards to his study of history - analysing how specific artefacts and practices fit into the general context that was observable otherwise, and analysing how the people in these contexts related to it. This small volume in particular contains a couple of chapters from his more extensive "Discipline and Punish", but do a good job at outlining the shift from corporeal to mental punishment in the penal system and the performative reproduction of the crime in corporeal punishment and how it was designed and devised and what this caused in those observing it.

[Aaron Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken from Foucault’s ‘Discipline and Punish’ this short book is a great introduction to his thoughts on the relations between punishment, power and society. The focus in the second half on the power of imagery and symbolism in pre-Enlightenment execution and torture are particularly riveting. The first half is more typical of Foucault’s method, tracing the changing ‘episteme’ of punishment through history, but this work is most interesting in its analyses of the punished body and early modern law.

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this looks familiar to you then it's probably because you've read 'Discipline and Punish' - this is a separate publication of part one of it ...

It stands reasonably well on its own - maybe it doesn't draw conclusions as thoroughly as it would have done had it been intended to be published separately but aside from that it's fine.

[Grinjo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foucaults remarkable analysis of justice systems in the 17th and 18th centuries, when a shift in perceiving crime was happening, from the criminal being a mere individual body to an addressing of his soul

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s great but this excerpt isn’t complete chapters. Why not include the few pages from the original that it leaves out?

[Helya Soheilinia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Take a shot everytime Foucault has the worst take on anything.

[Sydne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the deliverance of justice over the centuries and the psychology behind the different ways justice was executed (no pun intended).