The Soul Is The Prison Of The Body

A close critical reading of “The Body of the Condemned” in Foucault’s Discipline & Punish

In Discipline and Punish, Foucault begins with ‘The body of the condemned’, an introductory chapter that aims to put into perspective his objectives for the book, and the method of his inquiry. These, however, are not immediately apparent because the chapter opens with a historical narrative of penal styles in 18th and 19th century France.