Discipline & Punish

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On 1 March 1757 Damiens the regicide was condemned "to make the amende honorable before the main door of the Church of Paris", where he was to be "taken and conveyed in a cart, wearing nothing but a shirt, holding a torch of burning wax weighing two pounds"; then, "in the said cart, to the Place de Grève, where, on a scaffold that will be erected there, the flesh will be torn from his breasts, arms, thighs and claves with red-hot pincers, his right hand, holding the knife with which he committed the said parricide, burnt with sulphur, and, on those places where the flesh will be torn away, poured molten lead, boiling oil, burning resin, wax and sulphur melted together and then his body drawn and quartered by four horses and his limbs and body consumed by fire, reduced to ashes and his ashes thrown to the winds"... "Finally, he was quartered," recounts the Gazette d'Amsterdam of 1 April 1757. "This last operation was very long, because the horses used were not accustomed to drawing; consequently, instead of four, six were needed; and when that did not suffice, they were forced, in order to cut off the wretch's thighs, to sever the sinews and hack at the joints...

(some text from Discipline and Punish, 1975) [read more]

บางตอนจากบทว่าด้วย "ทัณฑ์ทรมาน" (Torture) ใน "วินัยและการลงทัณฑ์" (Discipline & Punish) งานที่ฟูโกต์ใช้วิธีการประวัติศาสตร์แบบวงศาวิทยา (geanelogy) มาเปิดเผยให้เห็นประวัติศาสตร์ของอำนาจที่อยู่ในรูปวินัยของสังคมสมัยใหม่ (อ่านที่นี่)