Women in House of Cards Master’S Diploma Thesis

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Viktória Fedorová Women in House of Cards Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph. D. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgment I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. for all his help and valuable advice. I would also like to thank my partner, friends and family for their support. Table of Contents 1.Introduction………………………………………………………………….1 2. Foucault’s Theory of Power………………………………………………...4 2.1. What is Power?…………………………………………………………4 2.2. Disciplinary Power……………………………………………………..9 2.3. Panopticism……………………………………………………………15 3. House of Cards: The Book Trilogy………………………………………..18 3.1. The Background……………………………………………………….18 3.2. Plot Overview………………………………………………………….20 3.3. Power Relations in the Books……………………………………….....23 3.4. Mattie Storin……………………………………………………………26 3.5. Sally Quine……………………………………………………………..33 3.6. Claire Carlsen…………………………………………………………..38 4. BBC Adaptation…………………………………………………………….42 4.1. The Background………………………………………...……………...42 4.2. Plot Overview…………………………………………………………..44 4.2. Power Relations in the Series…………………………………………..45 4.3. Mattie Storin……………………………………………………………48 4.4. Sarah Harding…………………………………………………………..54 4.5. Claire Carlsen…………………………………………………………..58 5. Netflix Adaptation…………………………………………………………..63 5.1. The Background………………………………………………………..63 5.2. Plot Overview…………………………………………………………..64 5.3. Power Relations in Netflix Adaptation…………………………………67 5.4. Zoe Barnes……………………………………………………………...69 5.5. Jackie Sharp…………………………………………………………...75 5.6. Claire Underwood……………………………………………………..80 6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….86 7. Works Cited………………………………………………………………...89 8. Resume (Czech)…………………………………………………………….93 9. Resume (English)…………………………………………………………...94 1. Introduction Power as defined by French philosopher Michel Foucault cannot be held by a single person; it is distributed throughout the social relations where it functions through the tactics and strategies. While strategies are found at the macrolevel of governmentality, the tactics are found at the microlevel of the personal relations. One of the tactics applied in the exercise of power is discipline. This is the tactics that is frequently used by the main protagonist in his relationships with women who work for him, both in the novel and two subsequent adaptations, the miniseries made by BBC and the series made by Netflix. He works as the watchmen in the Panopticon who surveils and punishes. The aim is to create “docile bodies”. This term is described by Foucault in Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. The creation of the docile body is “formation of a relation that in the mechanism itself makes it more obedient as it becomes more useful and conversely” (D&P 138). The aim of the tactics of discipline is to function with the minimum level of the coercion while achieving maximum effectivity of the performance of the subjected. The power relation is used to make them to become the subjects of this subjection and they constantly correct their behavior in accordance with what they have been trained to do. However, freedom of the individuals who are subjected to this exercise of power is the main condition for the power relation to exist. When physical coercion is used, it is no longer the power relation; power functions through language rather than violence. This means that the exercise of power can raise a multitude of responses and there is never an absolute domination over the subject. The resistance is crucial part of the power relation and often shapes this relation and offers the characters the way out. As the main tactics of the disciplinary power is the individualization of the body which is 1 achieved by controlling the person’s time, actions and movement, the way out is achieved by resisting this individualization. This way out is often hinted at by the other people who are crucial in the lives of the women who are subjected to Urquhart’s and Underwood’s discipline. As Foucault puts it in “The Subject and Power”, “maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are but to refuse what we are. We have to imagine and to build up what we could be to get rid of this kind of political "double bind," which is the simultaneous individualization and totalization of modern power structures” (“Subject” 784). Foucault makes clear that power can be properly understood only through the forces that resist it and this is what the feminine characters in the books and the series do- they shape the power by their resistance which is internal to the power. However, as the power functions through all social relations through a network, the alignments with the other characters that are important in the women’s lives are crucial for their resistance. The more isolated the characters are, the more efficient the main character’s discipline. The processes of the disciplinary power as defined by Foucault are to be analyzed on set of three feminine characters from the book- Mattie Storin, Sally Quine and Claire Carlsen, three characters from the BBC adaptation- Mattie Storin, Sarah Harding and Claire Carlsen and three characters from Netflix adaptation- Claire Underwood, Jackie Sharp and Zoe Barnes. Although the tactics of the discipline applied on them differ, the main protagonist never achieves the total domination because the resistance is vital part of power relations and, although the women are in the tactically worse situation, they are never entirely powerless and they are provided with the way out. Foucault’s book Discipline & Punish and his essay “The Subject and Power” provide the main theoretical framework for this analysis. In the second chapter, the concept of power as well as the tactics of the disciplinary 2 power is described. It also covers the concept of Panopticon as the main representation of the disciplinary power. In the third chapter, the relation between women and the main protagonist of the novel are analyzed. The chapter starts with the description of the background of the novels provided mainly by the author Michael Dobbs. This section is followed by the plot overview and the explanation of the role of the main protagonist in the power relations in general which is followed by the analysis of the relations between main protagonist and the women. The fourth chapter covers the analysis of the BBC miniseries, with the description of the background, plot overview and the analysis of the power relations as a whole, followed by the analysis of the relations between main protagonist and women. The fifth chapter follows the same structure with the analysis of Netflix adaptation. The last chapter is the conclusion where the results of the analysis are presented. 3 2. Foucault’s Theory of Power 2.1. What is Power? The concept of power is the main subject of Foucault’s work. According to him, the power is omnipresent in the social relationships. In Discipline & Punish he says that “power is exercised rather than possessed; it is not the 'privilege', acquired or preserved, of the dominant class, but the overall effect of its strategic positions - an effect that is manifested and sometimes extended by the position of those who are dominated” (D&P 26). Power cannot be held by the single person– it can never be possessed– and can be found across the social relations which are shaped by it. In “Subject and Power”, he makes an assumption that “in order to understand what power relations are about, perhaps we should investigate the forms of resistance and attempts made to dissociate these relations” (“Subject” 780). Thus, for Foucault the means of resistance are the important aspect of the power relations through which these power relations can be analyzed. Only through studying those who are subjected to the exercise of power can one see functioning of this power. Similarly, in Foucault’s “Two Lectures” published in Power/Knowledge, he describes power as dynamic and circulating, as “something which only functions in the form of a chain” (P/K 98). According to his description, “power is employed and exercised through a net-like organization. And not only do individuals circulate between its threads; they are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and exercising this power. They are not only its inert or consenting target; they are always also the elements of its articulation” (P/K 98). The bodies over which the power is exercised are “not only its inert or consenting target”; their response is equally important in the relationship where power is exercised. Joseph Rouse provides a further explanation of this concept in his essay “Power/Knowledge”: “Power is not possessed by a dominant 4 agent, nor located in that agent’s relations to those dominated, but is instead distributed throughout complex social networks” (Rouse 109). These social networks are the basis for the power to exist; without their support the dominant agent cannot exercise the power over the submissive agent. Richard A. Lynch talks about this network of relations in his essay “Foucault’s Theory of Power” where he explains Foucault’s view of power. He defines “the basic characteristics of power, according to Foucault” as “a network of force relations throughout society, relations that are characterized by resistance and which interact by means of local tactics

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