The Gregorian Reform, Pastoral Power, and Subjection

Abstract

In Nietzsche’s parable of subjection, the subject is produced through the application of an outside force, “priestly” or pastoral power, which aims to provoke accountability and the internalization of bad conscience. External force produces the accountable, interiorized subject. In the present argument, it is assumed that even in the absence of any activity of folding or subjectivation, the subject is produced within a decentered nexus of power, knowledge, and language. Pastoral power represents one potential form of power that provokes the “internalization” of bad conscience and the attendant fiction of the subject. This Nietzschean parable of subjection is applicable to the phenomenon of individuation in the twelfth century, with the problem that it lacks all historical contextualization and all specificity as to the traits of pastoral power, including its use of confession as a technique.KeywordsThirteenth CenturyTwelfth CenturyEleventh CenturySovereign PowerBare LifeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.