Creation of the Ethical Self: Foucault and Hawthorne on Modes of Subjection

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Subject-Formations Across Borders and Boundaries

Abstract

Educators often use Foucault to explore institutional powers normalizing “docile bodies.” into obedient subjects, but less attention has focused on his theory of the creation of one’s own subjectivity and its relevance to initiatives present in today’s public schools. Although character education initiatives abound, they tend to exemplify a subjectivity imposed by institutions including the schools that implement the programs, the government that legislates and incentivizes them, and the corporations that benefit from them. I use Foucault’s two-step process of subject creation to analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” to illuminate the potential for teachers and students to transform themselves into “ethical subjects.”

Author

• Judi Lynn Thorn, Oklahoma State University