The prison cell reworks a Christian monastic technique toward state-directed moral conversion.
Evidence
The cell, that technique of Christian monachism, which had survived only in Catholic countries, becomes in this protestant society the instrument by which one may reconstitute both homo oeconomicus and the religious conscience. Between the crime and the return to right and virtue, the prison would constitute the ‘space between two worlds’ the place for the individual transformation that would restore to the state the subject it had lost. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 199
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the panoptic thesis: the cell as a machine that transforms the subject from within, anticipating the telescreen’s interiorized surveillance. — connects to: The penal apparatus morally reeducated the poor into legalism — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 436; The prison was conceived as an apparatus for transforming human beings — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 506; Discipline repurposed religious ascetic exercise toward indefinite worldly domination. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 244
- DEFINE: Traces the etymological and institutional lineage of the cell from Christian monachism to the penitentiary.
Related
- The prison was conceived as an apparatus for transforming human beings (similarity 0.86)
- The penal apparatus morally reeducated the poor into legalism (similarity 0.82)
- Prison integrated correctional transformation into legal detention from the start (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Discipline repurposed religious ascetic exercise toward indefinite worldly domination.
#expands(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 244