AUTHORITY AND DISCIPLINE IN POST-WORLD WAR II FRENCH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE FILM LES CHORISTES
Abstract
In the study of French language and culture, French-language films serve as important objects of study because they represent the social values, history, and ideology that have developed within French society. The film Les Choristes is set during the post-World War II period in 1949. During that era, France underwent a phase of social and moral reconstruction in which educational institutions held an important role in reshaping the social order through discipline, obedience, and moral values. Education during that period was inseparable from the historical and political circumstances surrounding it. This study aims to analyze the representation of power and discipline in French educational institutions in the post-World War II era through the film Les Choristes (2004) by Christophe Barratier. We employ a descriptive qualitative approach using Roland Barthes’ semiotic analysis method through three levels: denotation, connotation, and myth, which are subsequently linked to Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework of power and discipline. The analysis of six scenes reveals that power is represented through the Action-Réaction principle as a mechanism of instant punishment without any investigative process, while discipline is manifested through the internalization of institutional norms that shape students’bodily responses into automatic obedience. Both practices are interrelated in maintaining institutional dominance over the formation of individuals. This study concludes that the film Les Choristes represents power and discipline as an, ntegrated system within educational institutions, consistent with Foucault’s concepts of docile bodies and normalization.
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