Panopticon/Synopticon of Silence: Surveillance in/of Domestic Space in The House of Bernarda Alba

The paper attempts to study the domestic space as represented in The House of Bernarda Alba using emerging scholarship on gendered spaces and the post-revolutionary emergence of models of masculinity in Spain. It aims to study the deflection mechanism from the normative understanding of ‘home’ emanating from the imposition of normative and institutionally ratified identities and behaviour. It studies the inherent violence and silencing tendency of this mechanism while accounting for the balance of acquiescence and resistance practiced by the members. Furthermore, it studies the resemblance of this contested domestic space to Betham’s Panopticon and the panoptic surveillance society as formulated by Foucault. While understanding the role of institutional infiltration of domestic space the paper argues that the elements of drama anticipate the conservatism and seamless surveillance of Sección Femenina of the Franco regime. Inclusive of the panopotiscim’s power dynamics the rural drama created by Lorca also resembles Mathiesen’s synopticon or ‘viewer society’. Finally, this paper posits the role of silence as a coercive tool in surveillance.