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Danger, Docility and the Denial of Death: On Productive Forces of Violent Practices in Prison

Berling, Rut LU (2020) STVK02 20192
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This thesis establishes an understanding of violence as discourse in the setting of Turkish prisons, during the death fast in the early 2000s. It uncovers discourses embedded in the acts of torture, hunger striking and force-feeding, each able to produce certain kinds of subjects. Investigating the interplay between power logics that underpin these violent practices, the thesis contests the idea of violence as something exclusively constraining. Torture is theorized as part of a discourse of security, producing prisoners as dangerous bodies, whereas a medical discourse covered in the use of force-feeding shapes docile and legible bodies. Disrupting this order, hunger striking resembles an attempt to bring about contestation over these... (More)
This thesis establishes an understanding of violence as discourse in the setting of Turkish prisons, during the death fast in the early 2000s. It uncovers discourses embedded in the acts of torture, hunger striking and force-feeding, each able to produce certain kinds of subjects. Investigating the interplay between power logics that underpin these violent practices, the thesis contests the idea of violence as something exclusively constraining. Torture is theorized as part of a discourse of security, producing prisoners as dangerous bodies, whereas a medical discourse covered in the use of force-feeding shapes docile and legible bodies. Disrupting this order, hunger striking resembles an attempt to bring about contestation over these forced identities, which in the case of Turkey tend to reproduce stereotypes by associating religious, ethnic or racial affiliations with terrorism. Exploring the distinct logics of sovereign power and biopower, the thesis observes their intersection in the event of death. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Berling, Rut LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20192
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Bare life, biopower, discourse of security, force-feeding, F-Type prisons, hunger strike, medical discourse, sovereign power, torture
language
English
id
8999269
date added to LUP
2020-03-02 09:38:57
date last changed
2020-03-02 09:38:57
@misc{8999269,
  abstract     = {{This thesis establishes an understanding of violence as discourse in the setting of Turkish prisons, during the death fast in the early 2000s. It uncovers discourses embedded in the acts of torture, hunger striking and force-feeding, each able to produce certain kinds of subjects. Investigating the interplay between power logics that underpin these violent practices, the thesis contests the idea of violence as something exclusively constraining. Torture is theorized as part of a discourse of security, producing prisoners as dangerous bodies, whereas a medical discourse covered in the use of force-feeding shapes docile and legible bodies. Disrupting this order, hunger striking resembles an attempt to bring about contestation over these forced identities, which in the case of Turkey tend to reproduce stereotypes by associating religious, ethnic or racial affiliations with terrorism. Exploring the distinct logics of sovereign power and biopower, the thesis observes their intersection in the event of death.}},
  author       = {{Berling, Rut}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Danger, Docility and the Denial of Death: On Productive Forces of Violent Practices in Prison}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}