The Battle Roar of Silence: Foucault and the Carceral System

The Battle Roar of Silence - Foucault and the Carceral System by Meinrad Calleja explores the philosophical rationales sustaining morality, law, punishment and the carceral system as part of the discourse of globalisation. This text attempts to desacralize the foundations of this globalisation discourse by drawing upon Foucault's 'archaeological' and 'genealogical' study of institutions, knowledge, discourse and power. This is an interdisciplinary study fusing aspects of sociology and psychoanalysis within a philosophical framework to tender a politically-charged critique of the contemporary modes of domination and power.

Pseudo-scientific pathologies born from carceral discourses are disseminated and reproduced as an integral feature of the contemporary political culture and its dominant ideology. The proliferation of these pathologies often serves as a reference point against which various categories, identities and values are registered, classified and rendered plausible. In The Battle Roar of Silence - Foucault and the Carceral System, Calleja attempts to deconstruct the very plausibility structures that sustain these ideological constructs. The text correlates the carceral system discourse to political, social and economic antagonisms that have eroded human rights, democracy and freedom. Consumers of this discourse suffer the negative features of this despotic order in silence. Indeed, this text articulates the battle roar of silence.

About the Author

Meinrad Calleja is the author of Aspects of Racism in Malta, a critical analytical study of racism trends in Malta; Islam and the Dynamics of Power, a study of Islamic philosophy and modern political science; and The Philosophy of Desert Metaphors in Ibrahim al-Koni - The Bleeding of the Stone, an attempt to prise out philosophical reflections in al-Koni's text through the study of two variables: metaphors and desert. Calleja was educated at St. Edward's College, Malta and the University of Malta. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Arabic Studies and Sociology, and an M.A. in Arabic. The author's main interests lie in the areas of philosophy, history, literature and sociology.

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