A STUDY OF THE FOUCAULDIAN CONCEPT OF POWER IN CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT PART I

The present article applies Foucault's concept of Power to Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c.1587-88). Power is productive and not restrictive; there are power relations and power is not controlled by anyone, rather it is simultaneously everywhere and also the exercise of power is strategic and war-like. These are what Michel Foucault defines as Power which is totally different with the repressive notion of power everybody had in mind before Foucault. First and foremost, it tries to explain power in Foucauldian perspective and what does he meant by the concepts of or the relation between power and knowledge in generality. Furthermore, the scope of the article changes to trace the concept of power throughout the play. The remainder of the paper focuses on explaining the layers of the power dispersed throughout the society, the power of language and discourse, the downfall of societies' rulers and the coming together of several realms under Tamburlaine's banner. On the other hand, the power of individual kings, queens especially the Tamburlaine himself as the main embodiment of autocracy and also their ministers and followers in power will be discussed in due order, by having Foucault's ideas in mind. Moreover, other terms related to Foucauldian ‘Power' like ‘Sovereign power', ‘Disciplinary power' and ‘Pastoral power' will be explained and traced in the play. To put it in a nutshell, the aim of the present article is simply to explore the capability of reading one of Marlowe's plays in Foucauldian terms giving Marlowe's play a new layer of meaning, to make it applicable for the contemporary reader and audience and to work on them anew.