Krotko telo Blanche DuBois

Praznik, Sara (author), Dolar Bahovec, Eva (mentor)

Blache DuBois je glavni lik v drami Tennesseeja Williamsa Tramvaj Poželenje. Blanche zelo veliko pozornosti posveča svojemu telesu in videzu. Njeno telo je idealen primer ženskega krotkega telesa, o katerem piše Sandra Lee Bartky v navezavi na Foucaultovo prelomno delo Nadzorovanje in kaznovanje, kjer avtor piše o novem tipu oblasti, disciplinski oblasti in o njenem produktu, krotkih telesih. Disciplinska oblast dresira telesa preko nadzorujočega pogleda in prisiljevanja teles k homogenosti. Dispozitiv disciplinske oblasti, ki ga analizira Foucault, je Panoptik, ki deluje na podlagi vseprisotnega pogleda. Posamezniki zaradi nenehnega občutka, da so gledani, pogled ponotranjijo in začnejo gledati same sebe. Ta pogled je normalizacijski, saj oblast vedno postavlja določene norme posameznikom. Bartkyjeva pravi, da je ta pogled moški pogled in ženske so mu bolj podvržene kot moški. Slavoj Žižek v delu Jezik, ideologija, Slovenci na podlagi Lacanove psihoanalize analizira osebnostno strukturo patološkega Narcisa. Patološki Narcis je posledica spodletele simbolne identifikacije z Imenom Očeta. Zaradi tega patološki Narcis tudi v odraslosti ostaja odvisen od zahtev, ki mu jih postavljajo drugi, ker mu ni uspelo osvoboditi svoje želje od kaprice Drugega. Patološki Narcis je zato idealna osebnostna struktura za disciplinsko oblast, ki si prizadeva za čim večjo podrejenost posameznikov pogledu. Blanche je patološki Narcis. Popolnoma se podreja moškemu pogledu, preko patriarhalnega »velikega« Jaza je zavezana podobi idealne ženske. Svojo vrednost si določa preko potrditve Drugih. Šele skozi zlom »velikega« Jaza se lahko Blanche razkrije njena odvisnost od zahtev patriarhalnih drugih. Blanchin »veliki« Jaz razpade, ker ji ne uspe dobiti narcističnega priznanja od Drugih. Spodleti ji biti idealna ženska. Preko duševnega zloma se lahko Blanche šele osvobodi, preko družbenega poraza se njen »veliki« Jaz zlomi, iz česar sledi, da osvoboditev ni nekaj enostavnega, ampak je boleča.

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: ženska krotka telesa, disciplinska oblast, patološki Narcis, Blanche DuBois, moški pogled
• Work type: Bachelor thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2023
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-150917
• Publication date in RUL: 26.09.2023

Secondary language

• Language: English
• Title: Docile body of Blanche DuBois

Abstract

Blanche DuBois is the main character in Tennessee Williams's play A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche gives a lot of attention to her body and looks. Her body is a perfect example of a woman’s docile body, about which writes Sandra Lee Bartky in connection to Foucault's groundbreaking work Discipline and Punish, where he writes about a new type of power, disciplinary power, and its product docile bodies. Disciplinary power disciplines bodies through surveillance gaze and through forcing bodies to homogeneity. Dispositive of disciplinary power that Foucault analyses is Panopticon, which is based on an omnipresent gaze. Individuals, because they feel like they are being watched all the time, internalize the gaze and start watching themselves. This gaze is normalizing, because power always sets norms for individuals. Bartky says that this gaze is the male gaze and that women are more subjected to it than men. Slavoj Žižek in his work Language, Ideology, Slovenians analyses the personality structure of pathological Narcissist based on Lacan's psychoanalysis. Pathological Narcissist is an effect of an unsuccessful symbolic identification with The Name of the Father. Consequently, a pathological Narcissist, even in his adulthood, stays dependent on demands of the others, because he was not able to free his desire from the caprice of the Other. That is why pathological Narcissist is an ideal personality structure for disciplinary power that strives for as much subordination of individuals to the gaze as possible. Blanche is a pathological Narcissist. She is completely subjected to a male gaze, through the »great« Ego she is tied to the image of an ideal woman. She determines her worth through the validation of Others. Only through the fall of her »great« Ego, can Blanche see her dependence on the demands of patriarchal others. Blanche's »great« Ego breaks down because she does not receive needed narcissistic approval from Others. She fails to be an ideal woman. Only through a mental breakdown, Blanche can free herself, through social defeat her »great« Ego falls apart, from what we can conclude that liberation is not easy, but rather painful.

• Keywords: women's docile bodies, disciplinary power, pathological Narcissist, Blanche DuBois, the male gaze