in the panoptic colony

Ever since we read the Foucault, it has got me thinking about Kafka's In the Penal Colony. Now, I know that the whole Postmodern movement started up around the 1970's and that In the Penal Colony was written in 1914, but they seem to really inform one another. I don't think either that the story is all that Postmodern, but more like both Kafka and Foucault were drawing from the same history and text in terms of discipline and punishment.

In the story, none of the characters have names. they are all referred to by their title: the officer, the explorer, and the condemned man. Much like Foucault's body of the king, and body of the condemned man. In the Penal Colony serves to illustrate the old means of discipline.

For those of you who haven't read it--well, you should. It's friggin' Kafka and there are sexy torture devices involved. Full text: http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm


anyway- an explorer comes to the penal colony to observe and study their system of judgment (Michel?) and is shown by the officer their "machine" with which they are going to execute the "condemned man." The explorer learns that their justice system is not the best (ie: the condemned man doens't know why he is being executed and cannot defend himself) and learns that the machine is meant to carve a phrase into the body of the condemned for 12 hours. At the end of 12 hours, right before he dies, the condemned man comes to"Enlightenment" of what the machine as taught him. The officer complains that no one comes to see the executions anymore and that this new boss wants to shut him down. The explorer says that he cannot endorse this and at this, the officer frees the condemned man and places himself under the machine--which malfunctions and instead of "exquisite torture such as the officer desired" it impales and kills him.

right. so, this seems to be a perfect example of the punishment of the body. They are not concerned with the state of his mind or rehabilitating him. He learns to be just through the mutilation of his body. He learns by "decipher[ing] the script with his wounds." This torture is idolized as a blessing where by though you die you are shown what you cannot see without the pain. The "Enlightenment" is "a moment that might tempt one to get under the Harrow oneself."

And the officer does just this when he realizes that the times of physical torture is over and he subjects himself to his own punishment. He does not gain his enlightenment and is simply killed quickly and violently.

To me, this shows the passing of the era of punishing the body and begins to question the idea of Enlightenment. Seems like our friend Franz was really on the ball in beginning to voice in his own way the basis of Foucault's ideas of punishment. Just wanted to put that out there, since it's been bugging me.

Also, when looking for a full text of the story i came across a "dramatic short film" as it is called of In the Penal Colony. And dramatic it is. I couldn't watch the whole thing, just skipped around but it involves dramatic slow motion chases and falls, classical music, german accents, a "machine" made with a budget of about $40, stiff acting, and very slow goose-stepping. it's good for a laugh, but read the story and don't blame Kafka for this.