Writer of Fancy: The Playful Piety of Jane Austen

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

History: Roman Panopticon?

After explaining the intrusive gaze of the Roman censor, Shardi asks whether the Romans created an ancient predecessor of Bentham’s panopticon, made famous by Foucault.  She recognizes the analogies, but says that the “differences are perhaps more striking than the similarities.”

First, in contrast to Bentham’s circular prison, the Roman gaze was reciprocal: “in republican Rome entire social groups are engaged in reciprocal acts of watching and evaluating, with the stakes highest (and most evident in our souces) at the highest levels of the political hierarchy.”  Romans were seen; but they also watched.

Second, Bentham’s panopticon was designed form prisoners while Roman visual politics operated among an elite.

Finally, “the panoptic gaze is purely assessing, purely judgmental.  There is no sense of glory in being the object of its focus, no room for triumph or for the display of family lineage, no assignment of exemplarity to be handed down for posterity.  At Rome, these were the rewards for subscribing to the shared values of the community and performing them in the flesh - at least during the republican period.  One of the most salient aspects of the transition to empire was precisely the breakdown of these rewards and the breakdown, too, of the reciprocity f the gaze.  Along with this went a breakdown in the distinction between safe and unsafe forms of visibility.”