Failure and Success of the Panopticon in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader: An Analysis From the Perspectives of Legal Moralism and Feminist Jurisprudence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1606.15Keywords:
The Reader, Panopticon, feminist jurisprudence, legal moralism, rights of female criminalsAbstract
In The Reader, Hanna is twice subjected to Foucault’s Panopticon structure, in the courtroom and prison. This paper uses Panopticon theory, along with legal moralism and feminist jurisprudence, to analyze the Panopticon’s successes and failures in the novel. It explores the adjudication of female crime, related moral boundaries, and the basic rights of female criminals. The paper examines the construction of women’s “Otherness”, the partial erosion of substantive justice, and the relationship between law and morality, and further proposes that recognizing the “value of intimacy”, initiating “restorative justice”, and fostering gender awareness among judicial personnel are crucial for the rational adjudication of female crime. Within the societal context of the Panopticon, a typical male discourse system, this paper also seeks to affirm the fundamental rights of female criminals.
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