{"id":941,"date":"2023-10-01T20:26:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T00:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=941"},"modified":"2023-10-01T20:26:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T00:26:44","slug":"the-ultimate-panopticon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2023\/10\/01\/the-ultimate-panopticon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Panopticon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I recently read an excerpt from Michel Foucault\u2019s \u201cPanopticism\u201d in the class \u201cPerspectives on Gender\u201d with Professor Marcus, and upon finishing Part 2 of Go Tell It on the Mountain<\/em>, I could not help but be reminded of Foucault\u2019s work, specifically the parallels between what he names as \u201cThe Panopticon\u201d and the role of religion in the lives of John and his family members. Foucault defines The Panopticon in the context of the carceral system, inspired Jeremy Bentham\u2019s idea for prison reform where the cells circle around a central guard tower, The Panopticon (like the image above). Because they each face inward towards the tower, The Panopticon represents the constant possibility of surveillance, so much so that there not even need be a person inside as long as the people in the prison have internalized this belief (fear) that they are constantly being watched. There is no escape from this incessant monitoring, real or imagined, and risk of punishment that follows should they be caught doing the \u201cwrong\u201d thing. Given the seemingly narrow scope of The Panopticon in Foucault\u2019s writing, I asked: what might The Panopticon look like in other settings?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I think Go Tell It on the Mountain<\/em> offers one possible answer to this question. I would argue that religion functions as some sort of Panopticon-like force in John\u2019s life. One moment where this idea is especially evident is when John visits the movie theater when \u201chaving once decided to enter, he did not look back at the street again for fear that one of the saints might be passing and, seeing him, might cry out his name and lay hand son him to drag him back\u201d (Baldwin 37). John very clearly worries that a member of his church will see him committing this sin and become someone who can testify against him before the Lord come judgment time. In other words, John feels that there is no reprieve from God\u2019s watchful eyes. Another similar example of this idea is when the mass attendees recite \u201cMy soul is a witness for my Lord,\u201d and in this instance, John experiences \u201can awful silence\u2026 a dreadful weight, a dreadful speculation\u2026 and this weight began to move at the bottom of John\u2019s mind, in a silence like the silence of the void before creation, and he began to feel a terror he had never felt before\u201d (Baldwin 76). I understand John\u2019s visceral reaction to this religious expression to speak to the fear that arises from the exact internalized perception of constant surveillance that is the basis for The Panopticon. For John, by way of others or himself, there is no escaping God\u2019s sight nor this world of binaries\u2013 good and evil, white and black\u2013 he sees as intrinsically connected to and enforced by his religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently read an excerpt from Michel Foucault\u2019s \u201cPanopticism\u201d in the class \u201cPerspectives on Gender\u201d with Professor Marcus, and upon finishing Part 2 of Go Tell It on the Mountain, I could not help but be reminded of Foucault\u2019s work, specifically the parallels between what he names as \u201cThe Panopticon\u201d and the role of religion … Continue reading The Ultimate Panopticon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4680,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[49822,503965,483010,471414],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-christianity","tag-go-tell-it-on-the-mountain","tag-john","tag-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}