Foucault’s Punitive Society

Visual Tactics of Marking as a History of the Present: Fig. 1

Bibliographic Data

ID8400849
AuthorsPhil Carney (corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume55
Issue2
Pages231-247
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjc/azu105
OpenAlexW2163893701
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited33

Applying a form of genealogical method rooted in Nietzsche’s use of history, this article seeks an understanding of ‘marking’ punishments in our own mass-mediated culture. First, Foucault’s analysis of the punitive tactic of marking in his 1973 course, The Punitive Society, will be considered. Second, his concept of ‘virtual marking’ will be extended and applied to the case of the pitture infamante in the early renaissance. Third, I will use these insights in a genealogical spirit in order to examine the rise of virtual marking in modernity. We will discover that Foucault was mistaken to tether marking punishments so closely to sovereign power. Instead, with certain antecedents in ancient Rome, virtual marking emerged in a largely bourgeois society during the early renaissance and re-emerges in our own society of mass, photographic spectacle.

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Bourgeoisie · Epistemology · Michel foucault · Modernity · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Punitive damages · Sociology · Sovereignty · Spectacle · The Renaissance · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Philosophy

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