Abstract:

This paper aims to interpret both the female characters in Naomi Wallace’s play And I and Silence (2011), Jamie and Dee’s desire to be free and their resistance to power within the framework of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish (1975). Emphasizing concepts such as power, freedom, and resistance, Foucault advocates that nobody is out of power for there exists no place absent of power. Furthermore, it is impossible not to mention freedom wherever there are power and resistance where freedom exists. Wallace introduces her audience to two female characters who had been convicted of different crimes and then met in prison. Jamie is African American while Dee is a white American woman. Both women dream of making a good life together after being set free. The moment that they do get released, they deem that they have gotten rid of disciplinary power, and are free. However, both of them begin to resist as they encounter power again. Characters who feel the power much more as they resist eventually accept that power is everywhere. They commit suicide in order to find freedom, regardless whether or not it is an exact solution. As a result, Wallace effectively reveals the American power system through her avant-garde play. Wallace's characters, moreover, are dramatic instances of Foucault's conceptualization of power, freedom, and resistance.