Čitanje Paklene naranče Anthonyja Burgessa kroz Foucaulta

• Main Author: Vedrana Čerina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Zadar 2014-12-01
• Series: [sic]
• Online Access: http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=289

In his dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), Anthony Burgess focuses on the phenomenon of adolescent violence in order to investigate the nature of the relationship between the individual and the societal body as a whole. While doing so, Burgess depicts the society of A Clockwork Orange precisely as he sees the modern society – as striving to achieve a predictable functioning of the societal life. In order to achieve the set goal, the society will resort to any means necessary, including a systematic disciplining of the individuals, who are in return expected to accept whichever the role the authority instances have intended for them. The individual who refuses to do so is labelled as “abnormal”, as Michael Foucault would say, and is to be corrected and shaped into an exemplar citizen.Foucault’s insights into the subject matter prove to be valuable for offering a possible interpretation of the issues at stake in Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Foucault’s reflections on the terms of power and discourse in their mutual correlation, and the role that they play in the process of an individual’s identity construction can serve to reinforce Burgess’ pessimistic outlook on the modern society as being fundamentally disciplinary and as aspiring to achieve societal obedience at the cost of individual freedom.