Foucault's Theories of Power, Knowledge, and Technologies of the Self - Coursework Example

The study summarizes the movie Donnie Darko followed by analyzing four main characters in the movie whereas the third part will discuss the strengths and limitations of Foucault’s theories of power, knowledge, and technologies of self when applied to each of the selected movie characters. Donnie is a troubled teenager who is experiencing symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Mr. Cunningham is a pedophile and well-known motivational public speaker who is hiding the truth about himself to the public. Ms. Pomeroy and Dr.

Monnitoff are school teachers who have a different outlook on how one should act within a hierarchal bureaucracy. After applying Foucault’s theories of power, knowledge, and technologies of self to each of the selected movie characters, it was concluded that there are some noticeable limitations with regards to the use of Foucault’s proposed theories. For this reason, taking special considerations is highly recommended. Michel Foucault is a French historian and philosopher who became well-known for criticizing the studies of social institutions related to psychiatry, medicine, the prison system, human sexuality, and human sciences.

Over the years, Foucault has introduced to us the four major types of ‘technologies’ known as (1) technologies of production; (2) technologies of sign systems; (3) technologies of power; and (4) technologies of the self. Although these four major technologies are different from one another, Foucault explained in details how each of the four types of technologies is interrelated with one another. Donnie Darko, a movie which was directed by Richard Kelly back in 2001, is a cult psychological thriller film.

Basically, the main characters in the movie named Donnie Darko is a troubled teenager who was searching for the real meaning of life. Paranoid schizophrenia is a common type of schizophrenia which causes a person to experience a series of paranoid, delusions, and hallucinations related to auditory sensory or hearing. Due to the fact that Donnie is suffering from the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, he often encounters emotional and psychological disturbances due to the presence of auditory hallucination.

For this reason, his outlook in life was totally different from what other teenagers are going through in life. Not only did he get much trouble inside the school compound but also within the family circle and the community. For this study, the researcher will focus on discussing Foucault’s technologies of self, power, and theory of knowledge. To enable the readers to have a better understanding of the subject matter, the first part of the study has been divided into three major sections.

As part of conducting a literature review, the first section will analyze and discuss Foucault’s technologies of the self. The second section of the study will tackle Foucault’s point-of-view regarding knowledge whereas the third section will discuss Foucault’s theories behind power.