本文是一篇英语毕业论文，本论文试图通过分析《摆渡人》中的微观权力运行机制，揭示该剧人物的悲剧命运缘由以及探讨其如何在权力之网中争取自由与解放。这不仅有益于丰富巴特沃斯戏剧作品的相关研究，更有益于激发受缚于权力关系罗网中的现代人对其生存境遇的思考。
1.Introduction
1.1 Object of the study
Jez Butterworth(1969-)is not only a contemporary British playwright,but also ascreenwriter and film director.Up to now,Butterworth has produced and directed a number ofworks.Just after graduating from college,Jez Butterworth completed his first long play Mojoin January 1995,and the play was picked up right away by a Royal Court artistic director.Mojo made a hit and won many awards,such like the Evening Standard,the Laurence Olivier,the Writer’s Guild and the George Devine Awards,and the Critic’s Circle Award in 1996.Itwas also adapted for film in 1997 which featured 2005 Nobel Literature Laureate HaroldPinter.Later,The Night Heron(2003)has its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in 2002 andreceived positive reviews.The Winterling(2006)also ran at the Royal Court in 2006.A yearlater,Butterworth received the E.M.Foster Award from the American Academy of Arts andLetters.Parlour Song(2009)was also appreciated and followed with extensive interest andattention.Butterworth’s fourth play for the Royal Court,Jerusalem(2009),was awardedthe Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Critics’Circle Theatre Award for the bestplay of 2009,and nominated for the 2011 Tony Award.The protagonist Mark Rylance evenreceived the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Play.The River(2012)premiered at the Royal Court Theatre and had its US premiere on Broadway.The receptionabout it was positive.According to the BBC News,London critics found it“lyrical”,“beautifully written”and“suffused with wonder and beauty”(“High Praise”,2012).TheFerryman(2017)is the latest published play of Jez Butterworth and is also the most importantone.
1.2 Purpose and significance of the study
As for the purpose of the study,Jez Butterworth is a contemporary English playwrightworthy of being studied.In recent years,Butterworth has been noticed by more and moreplaywrights and scholars.Many of his plays have won lots of awards in British and Americantheatre.After the premiere of The Ferryman at the Royal Court Theatre in 2017,it wasawarded the Tony Award,the Oliver Award,the Critics’Award and many other awards.But sofar,research on Butterworth and his plays is still not rich and there is plenty of room for thisresearch.This study adopts the method combining theory and text analysis to analyze TheFerryman from the perspective of Foucault’s micro-power theory.It tries to explore the way,the effects of power operation and the resistance to power in The Ferryman,revealsButterworth’s thinking and criticism of power and arouses modern people’s reflection on theirlife status and vigilance on power relations.
As for the significance of the study,it can be explained from two perspectives,thetheoretical significance and the practical significance.From the perspective of theoreticalsignificance,this study does intensive reading of The Ferryman from the perspective ofFoucault’s micro-power theory.It is conducive to deeply interpret the historical backgroundand theme concern of the creation of the play and understand the thinking on contemporaryNorthern Irish society,British society,history,politics and even world issues in this play.Meanwhile,this study provides a new perspective of the research on Butterworth’s plays andbroadens the research field.
2.Literature Review
2.1 Research abroad
Research abroad about Jez Butterworth emerges in the early 21st century.SinceJerusalem was a real hit and was awarded the Evening Standard Theatre Award,Critics’sCircle Theatre Award for the best play of 2009 and nominated for the 2011 Tony Award,Butterworth has gained wider attention and the research on him has appeared.And with thelaunch and staging of Butterworth’s more plays,especially after The Ferryman was awardedmany awards including the Tony Award,the research on Jez Butterworth has been lifted togreater popularity.There have been more and more related reviews,journal articles andmonographs.Newspapers such as The Guardian,The New York Times and The Irish Timesshow enthusiastic reviews about Butterworth’s plays.Besides,research on Butterworth hasalso expanded from English and American to Asia countries.And most of the researches areabout Jez Butterworth the playwright himself and The Ferryman.To be specific,researchabroad on Butterworth and The Ferryman mainly focuses on the drama theme,comparativestudies,narrative method and the stage arts.
2.1.1 Research on the drama theme
Research on the drama theme mainly focuses on the reflection of the trauma,tragedyand politics especially political violence in Butterworth’s plays.GünençMesut praises thatButterworth is one of the most distinctive voice in contemporary British theatre scene and atypical representative of the 1990s cultural trend in his Political Violence and Re-victimizationin The Ferryman(2021).He also discusses the conflicts between Catholic and protestant,Northern Ireland and England,and he finds that the play presents the themes of politicalviolence and trauma.
2.2 Research at home
Research at home about Jez Butterworth is still in its infancy.In 2017,after TheFerryman premiered,articles about Jez Butterworth started to appear in China.And therelated research at home can be divided three categories.
The first category is about the theme of The Ferryman.In 2017,Menke’s The Strugglebetween Love,Humanity and Righteous Power in the Dangerous Jungle regards love,humanity and righteous as the core content of the play and believes that this play tells a storyabout the entanglements and love and hate of ordinary people in the turbulent times and thehuman nature of the sacrifice in the name of righteousness.
The second category is about the playwright.Wanglan in 2002 explored the Britishtheatre from 2010 to 2020.She claims that British dramatists have pay attention to the currentsocial reality and reflect social problems through their works,and Butterworth is one of theclassic playwrights who is active in the British drama world.She introduces that Butterworth'sThe Ferryman depicts the Northern Ireland Troubles during the period of 1969-1998.Andthis play embodies the efforts of an English dramatist to understand Northern Irish culture.Butterworth has consciously explored the influence of the Irish theatrical tradition.
3.Theoretical Foundation.....................11
3.1 Nature and characteristics of micro-power..........................11
3.2 Mechanism and effects of micro-power operation..................14
4.Operation Mechanism of Micro Power......................21
4.1 Observation..........................22
4.2 Normalizing judgement........................26
5.Society and Individual under Micro-power Operation..........37
5.1 Northern Irish society under panopticism....................37
5.2 Individuals under operation of micro-power..............44
6.Resistance in Network of Power Relations
6.1 Local struggles of prisoners
The hunger strike in The Ferryman launched by the hunger strikers aiming to win thetreatment of political prisoners(no prison uniform,no labor,etc.)is a typical kind of localstruggle.Although the direct purpose of the movement is not achieved eventually and thehunger strikers’appeals are not fulfilled,this movement arouses strong nationalist sentimentof the people who support this movement and prompts the Sinn Fein Party to become amainstream party.Foucault praises social movements highly,and he deems that themovements emerging since the 1960s change our human’life,spirits and attitudes.This is justwhat the hunger strike in the play does.Foucault says,“as soon as there is a power relation,there is a possibility of resistance.We can never be ensnared by power:we can always modifyits grip in determinate conditions and according to a precise strategy”(Foucault,1988:l23).“Local struggle”is one of the resistance strategies proposed by Foucault,which is a new form of struggle proposed with the characteristics of modern disciplinary power.In the localstruggle,people resist the small environment where they are directly oppressed.The purposeof Individuals is to get rid of the control,transformation and discipline on their bodiesimposed by power or other people through this struggle.Local struggles are usuallymovements initiated by marginalized groups and vulnerable groups for liberation.Forinstance,there are some movements initiated by homosexuals against discrimination,womendemanding some kind of power,workers requiring shorter working hours and the like.
7.Conclusion
The English scholar Sean McEvoy wrote in his book Class,Culture and Tragedy inthe Plays of Jez Butterworth,“But his plays...They examine our relationship with the past asexpressed in the storieswe tell about it.They are anxious about our relationship with thenaturalworld and about the deracination and marginalisation of working people”(McEvoy,2021:2).Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman is not only a recreation of real history,but alsoshows that power relations have covered all people and all over the whole social organism inmodern times like a net.
It can be seen in The Ferryman that in Northern Ireland in the 20th century,individualsobserve each other under the influence of religious belief,social norms and moral order,andthe relationships between them are complicated.In order to meet social norms and familyrules,and observe military discipline better,characters in this play gradually internalizevarious orders in their minds and form self-supervision.We can see the omnipresent powerrelations from the omnipresent bondage inside and outside.This thesis analyzes the effects ofpower relations on society and people from the perspective of the main operation mechanismof micro-power,namely disciplinary power.Disciplinary power is the most importantoperation mechanism of micro-power.Observation,normalizing judgement and examinationare the supporting techniques of disciplinary power.These techniques make the operation ofpower more secret and subtle.Besides,disciplinary institutions are also of great significanceto the spread and penetration of power relations.The ubiquity of these institutions allowspower relations to penetrate into every corner of society in a capillary way,making modernsociety a disciplinary society under the Panopticism.In the play,the County Derry and ruralCounty Armagh have become a disciplinary society,and the people living here have graduallybecome tame and useful bodies.However,where there is power,there is resistance.Theprisoners,the hero and heroine in the play still endeavour to find their way out through theresistance strategies such like“care of the self”and“local struggle”though they are trappedin the tragic fate.
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