No:10 (2019)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://gupea-staging.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/80633

Övervakning och kontroll i tidigmodern tid

Förverkligandet av det moderna demokratiska samhället har ofta förutsatt idén om den upplysta och genomlysta världen, och kopplat till demokratiska institutioner lovar transparensens praktiker kontroll av makten och frihet för individen. Historien har dock visat att denna vision redan från början, säg från slutet av 1700-talet, var en komplicerad väv av föreställningar om frihet och disciplin, öppenhet och kontroll. Idag vet vi att de kommunikations- och informationsteknologier som möjliggör öppenhet också genererar hemlighetsmakeri och övervakning. Hur såg det ut före modernitetens genombrott? Konferenskommittén lyfte fram flera frågor. Hur såg tidigmoderna människor på att övervaka och att bli övervakade? Vilka former tog sig informationsutvinning, identitetskontroll och åsiktsregistrering? Mot vilka var dessa praktiker riktade? Hur såg det eventuella motståndet ut och vilka metoder tillämpades för att undvika att bli granskad, inspekterad och censurerad? Hur uppfattades begrepp som hemlighet och öppenhet? Vad spelade individen för roll i spelet mellan privat och offentlig sfär? Vilka uttryck tog sig dessa teman i litteratur och konst under tidigmodern tid? I politiskt liv, näringsliv eller privatliv? I vilka avseenden kan kulturella representationer ses som befriande, implementerande, försvagande eller förstärkande av praktiker och idéer kring övervakning och kontroll?

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

FORMER OCH FUNKTIONER I GESTALTNINGEN AV ÖVERVAKNING OCH KONTROLL I 1600-TALETS MUSIKTEATERLIBRETTI
(2019) Hedman, Dag
A striking feature of 17th century musical dramas is the regular occurrence of motifs aiming to intensify the dramatic tension, such as espionage, surveillance, physical control and imprisonment. Through which forms are the motif complex of surveillance and control established in the libretti of the 17th century? What is its function? Did the audience perceive it as subversive or cautionary? The purpose of this article is to partly give a typological answer to these questions, and partly to discuss what functions the subject matter of surveillance and control could have had from the perspective of the powers that be and the audience/readers respectively. This investigation is based upon comparative close reading of more than 160 17th century English, French, Italian, Swedish and German libretti. Out of these 23 French, Italian, and German libretti have been chosen for closer examination.
OBSERVATION, CONTROL AND SIR THOMAS MORE
(LIR. journal, 2019) Sivefors, Per
It is hardly controversial to say that the Elizabethan play Sir Thomas More (1592–93?) is insistently preoccupied with issues of surveillance, control and punishment. In its depiction of the Ill May Day Riots in 1517 and the subsequent downfall of Thomas More, the play represents both More’s role as surveyor of the crowd and a victim of royal surveillance and punishment. The play in other words invites discussion of latter-day theories of control and justice such as Michel Foucault’s in Discipline and Punish. However, in its twists and turns of plot Sir Thomas More transcends generalizations about penal justice. While not staging a “pre-panoptic” system of control, the play frequently but ironically thematizes surveillance as an instrument of power, but it falls short of suggesting that surveillance produces pliable individuals. Instead, Sir Thomas More comes close to suggesting repentance rather than retribution as a model of justice, though this model is also made problematic through the character of Thomas More. In other words, the play can be said to defy generalizations about punishment as represented in the theories of Foucault as well as in later research.
GUSTAV III:S POLIS I EUROPEISKT PERSPEKTIV
(LIR. journal, 2019) Mattsson, Annie
In 1776 a new police establishment (”politiinrättning”) opened in Stockholm – the first step towards a modern police system. The reform was typical of its time. 17th century Europe entailed a successive development of organizations and authorities that increasingly came to resemble what we today understand as “police”. Paris 1667 is often identified as a starting point, and the Paris police was a common reference during the reformation of the institutions maintaining order in the European cities. In its time, as Foucault have noted, the Paris police was seen as the ultimate expression of the monarchy, where the power and control of the king were extended to individual details of daily life in the capital. In the light of this historical development, this article inquires into how the Swedish “Kungliga poliskammaren” (royal police chamber) related to a contemporary police discourse. What were the features of the police chambers organization and field of activities, and what were the similarities and differences compared to the French police? What kind of critique was articulated towards it? The study is based on mainly three types of Swedish material: statements from the initiators of the police reform; letters from the police commissioner to his superiors; critique towards the police commissioner expressed in political writings and memoirs. The comparative aspects of the article will take much of its stand on Alan Williams comprehensive study of the French police system, The Police of Paris 1718−1789 (1979), as well as on research on the police on the British Islands, by, amongst others, David G. Barrie, Clive Emsley och Philip Rawlings.
Editorial - Introduktion
(LIR. journal, 2019) Rosengren, Cecilia

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