Subjection and Defiance in the Tannery: Power Relations, Discipline, and Resistance in Houshang Moradi Kermani’s School Story, The Smile of the Pomegranate

This article aims to examine the representation of power relations, disciplinary practices and defiance in Houshang Moradi Kermani's school story, The Smile of the Pomegranate, through a Foucauldian lens. Employing a descriptive-interpretive approach and thematic data analysis, this research is situated within the field of comparative literature as defined by Henry Remak (1961), who posits that comparative literature is concerned with the relationships between literature and various other fields of knowledge, including sociology. Given that Foucault's perspective explores intersection of literature with broader social dimensions of power relations and disciplinary practices, this research aligns with the sociological aspect of comparative literature. The findings indicate that the fictional characters are transformed into docile bodies that serve the utility and productivity of society through the implementation of significant disciplinary techniques such as examination, surveillance, hierarchical observation, documentation, internalization, and normalization, along with micro-penalties related to time, speech, and behavior. Moreover, the story elucidates the complicity of the family with the school institution in the formation of docile bodies. to mold pupils into docile bodies, the headmaster suppresses students' inherent childhood playfulness, viewing it as a hindrance to the cultivation of productivity. The use of symbols and proper names functions as a mechanism for disciplinary practices as well. Nevertheless, this story also introduces a form of resistance that diverges from Foucault's framework. While Foucault envisions resistance within existing power structures, the character’s resistance in this story seeks to radically subvert the entire disciplinary system, thereby challenging the conventional hierarchy between child and adult.