Public execution survived only as hidden spectacle, a drapery over an invisible body
Evidence
The condemned man was no longer to be seen. Only the reading of the sentence on the scaffold announced the crime – and that crime must be faceless. … The last vestige of the great public execution was its annulment: a drapery to hide a body. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 49
Categorization
- XREF: The faceless hidden condemned body parallels the shift to invisible panoptic observation — power without a visible object, relevant to the surveillance thesis. — connects to: Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 113; Invisible inspection can awe prisoners to silence without any physical restraint — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 288
Related
- Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect (similarity 0.82)
- State power neutralized spectacle by garrisoning execution squares (similarity 0.80)
- Even imperfect invisibility can sustain the illusion of constant surveillance (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect
#contradicts(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 113 - Invisible inspection can awe prisoners to silence without any physical restraint
#expands(0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 288