Foucault's power dynamics in science fiction: a comparative study of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream And The Machine Stops

Pratama, Gilang Tangguh (2025) Foucault's power dynamics in science fiction: a comparative study of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream And The Machine Stops. Sarjana thesis, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

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Abstract

In literary studies, the exploration of power and authority has become a central concern, especially in understanding how texts reflect, reproduce, or resist systems of control. This study aims to analyze how power and resistance are represented in two science fiction short stories, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison and The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, using Michel Foucault’s theory of power as the main analytical framework. Both works depict dystopian worlds where technology dominates human life, revealing how power can operate through surveillance, normalization, and governmentality. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method through a comparative literature approach. The data were collected by conducting close reading and thematic analysis of the two short stories, focusing on narrative elements that illustrate the workings of disciplinary power and the emergence of resistance. The analysis is based on Foucault’s key concepts from Discipline and Punish (1977) and The History of Sexuality (1978). The findings show that disciplinary power in Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is represented through AM, a sentient supercomputer that exercises total surveillance and domination over the remaining humans. In Forster’s The Machine Stops, power functions through a more subtle system of technological dependence, where control is maintained by normalization and ideological conditioning rather than force. Despite the pervasive control in both stories, forms of resistance still appear, reflecting Foucault’s notion that power and resistance always coexist within the same network of relations. In conclusion, the study reveals that both stories illustrate how power not only represses but also produces subjects who internalize control. Science fiction thus becomes a medium through which the dynamics of power and human resistance can be critically examined, offering insights into how technological systems shape modern subjectivity.

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