Disciplinary power, confession, and normalizing judgment in Anne with an E
Keywords:
Foucauldian media analysis, Disciplinary power, Confession, Foster care system, Anne with an EAbstract
Care institutions for vulnerable children rarely present themselves as instruments of control, yet how they evaluate, correct, and normalize children remains underexplored in scholarship on the Netflix series Anne with an E (2017–2019). This qualitative descriptive study applies Foucauldian media analysis to six scenes from Season 1, Episodes 1–3, in which orphaned Anne Shirley’s placement with the Cuthbert family of Green Gables is read as a site of disciplinary power rather than a benevolent arrangement. Scenes were selected according to three Foucauldian categories: evaluation of the child's body or conduct (disciplinary power); confession, examination, or surveillance regulating the child's place (confession and surveillance of conduct); and dialogue or action marking the child as deviant from a social norm (normalizing judgment of the marginal subject). The analysis shows that Anne's body is evaluated according to a gendered specification of usefulness established before her arrival; that her place in the household depends on examination and confession, particularly when Marilla declares she "can't trust one word" from Anne's mouth following the loss of a brooch; and that her orphan status marks her as a deviation from Avonlea's norm, subjecting her to judgment from adults and peers. This study extends Foucauldian media analysis to a historical drama centered on rural domestic life, showing how discipline, confession, and normalization operate within household and community settings and persist beneath ostensibly benevolent child welfare narratives.
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