294
PARTISAN REVIEW
and punishment, destiny and luck, rich and poor, but turned Patricia
Hearst into a symbol-a symbol to judge,
to
identify with, and to
reconfirm one's prejudices. And even if, to some of us, it all appeared a
bit too pat, or too simplistic, there was enough suspense, media
coverage, merchandizing of ideas and ideals, to sustain our interest.
In
France, where everything now is analyzed in neo-structuralist
fashion, Foucault-the current superstar who made his reputation by
looking at all sorts of deviants since the Middle Ages-would be asked
to
comment for the press. And his comments would, in turn, make
headlines. For him, Patricia Hearst would become a moment in history
that occurred as a result of myriads of past and contemporary events–
events that had their roots in a number of specific conscious and
unconscious knowledges. And for him, Ms. Hearst would be more than
a symbol: her presence in the witness stand would be contrasted to
someone like Damien, her 1757 counterpart, whose condemnation
opens
Surveiller et punir.
In
this book, Foucault not only looks at crime and punishment in
the way he previously analyzed madness and disease, but links them to
the entire society. Once more, he follows Bachelard, for whom the birth
of a new science signifies an epistemological break; but he goes beyond
him by examining the epochs that are delimited by these breaks, in
neo-Saussurean manner. The most recent break, states Foucault, took
place around 1825, with the beginning of our own scientific era. Until
then, he says, we punished the bodies of deviants, but now we punish
their souls. Had Ms. Hearst lived two-hundred years ago, her punish–
ment might have resembled that of Damien, who
... in order
to
make amends ... was led naked, in a dung-can, wearing
only his shin, holding a burning two-pound candle, and then was to be
strapped
to
the scaffold while still in this cart; the straps were to be tied
around the breasts, arms, thighs and fat of the legs, while his right hand
was
to
hold up the knife with which he had committed the parricide; and
on the places where he was strapped, boiling oil from the melted lead of
the bullet was
to
be poured from the burning sulphur fire, until the
burning skin, the candle wax, and the sulphur would melt together; his
body was then
to
be dismembered and was to be pulled by four horses; and
after that it was to
be
consumed by fire, reduced
to
ashes and the ashes
were
to
be thrown to the wind.
Almost gleefully, Foucault recounts this ghoulish tale, the way
Levi-Strauss recounts myths, through parallels and transformations,
signs and signifiers, synchronic and diachronic oppositions. Using
Patricia Hearst as an example, he might contrast her to Damien in the
