Foucault's Power Knowledge Discourse and Panoptical Strands in the Construction of Psyche and Decoloniality in Light in August

Abstract

This research paper intends to explore the revolting resistance by the blacks and the problematic domains of reconstructionist movements and white ostracism under the dominant ideology of white supremacists. The black existential crisis and search for identity has led a creation of 'black burden' through the ironic conception of the white man's burden. The American literature is engulfed with the dominant thematic concerns of racial traumas, identity crisis and white superior regimes under their colonial matrix of power. Contrarily to this notion, Light in August represents a revolutionary rebellion and violent case of resistance against the privileged ideologies in Mississippi through the protagonist Joe Christmas. Significantly, the selected text, Light in August is a unique masterpiece as it introduces the notion of black Xenophobia against whites who are already labelled with their white xenophobic concepts. In this regard, this paper utilizes the theoretical framework of power, knowledge and panoptic theory represented by Michel Foucault. It highlights that both white power produces their knowledge and discourse upon blacks to make them feel, inferior and subjugated under the dominance of their white color who keep an eye on the negroes. The paper brings into account sadomasochism and psychoanalytical neurotic stratifications in the blacks through Foucault's perspectives. Besides the exploration of black racial resistance, the paper puts forth the issue of white religious fanaticism in context of white ostracism in order to call for the decolonial agenda as its fundamental motif. Thus, this research paper provides some solving strategies to the questions regarding the methodologies of black resistance and white ostracism.