| Type of Document |
Master's Thesis |
| Author |
Basu, Marina
|
| URN |
etd-11102006-113703 |
| Title |
Biopolitics or the Legislation of Life: A Foucauldian Analysis |
| Degree |
Master of Arts (M.A.) |
| Department |
Philosophy & Religious Studies |
| Advisory Committee |
| Advisor Name |
Title |
| Gregory Schufreider |
Committee Chair |
| Denise Egea-Kuehne |
Committee Member |
| Kaustuv Roy |
Committee Member |
|
| Keywords |
- melissa ann rowland
- michel foucault
- bio-politics
- bio-power
- power-knowledge
- discourse
- normalization
- medicalization of pregnancy
- subject
- drug use during pregnancy
|
| Date of Defense |
2006-11-03 |
| Availability |
unrestricted |
Abstract
Michel Foucault uses the term biopolitics to highlight the focus on life that is at the center of contemporary politics. Biopower or biopolitics is the maximization of life through various regulatory apparatuses that monitor, modify, and control life processes. I elucidate and exemplify Foucault's framework in order to show how the medical discourse exercises a certain kind of power over bodies in the name of health. My argument is that through the mechanisms of biopower, the juridico-medical discourse simultaneously makes pregnancy into an object of study and the pregnant woman into a subject of power. With the help of a Foucauldian interpretation, I attempt to unmask the not-so-visible techniques of biopolitics that surround the pregnant woman. The unmasking makes it possible to think differently which is the primary task of philosophy. Specifically, such a critique helps in reformulating the problem as one of subjectivation.
|
| Files |
| Filename |
Size |
Approximate Download Time
(Hours:Minutes:Seconds)
|
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56K Modem |
ISDN (64 Kb) |
ISDN (128 Kb) |
Higher-speed Access |
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Basu_thesis.pdf |
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