Remembering school: mapping continuities in power, subjectivity and emotion in stories of Australian school life

This thesis stems from a resurgence of interest in theorising memory as a socio-cultural and collective phenomenon. In line with postpositivist conceptions of memory, I undertook an analysis of experiential stories of school life in twentieth century Australia. Publicly circulating memories of school were collected from numerous sources including published sources such as school magazines, newspapers, autobiographies and anthologies and through in-depth interviews. In all, stories of school were gathered from 289 storytellers. This collection of stories comprised a discursive field in which those power relations, subject positions and emotions most commonly associated with school could be traced. The major aim of this process was to map continuities in power, subjectivity and emotion in the memories of storytellers, across generations. Michel Foucault's theories of power and subjectivity are employed throughout the thesis. Other theoretical influences include materialist, poststructuralist and Foucauldian feminisms; and the work of Robert Connell and Judith Butler among others. A custom-made theoretical and methodological tool, the "powerplay", was developed in order to trace micro-practices of power at the emotional, subjective and bodily levels. A number of thematic continuities across generational stories were identified. Three were explored in detail. These are punishment, bullying and pleasure. Within each theme there were a number of remarkably stable operations of power, subject positions and emotional repertoires. This thesis provides a micro-analysis of these enduring phenomena, with a focus on making familiar, normalised or commonsensical aspects of schooling, strange. After Foucault, the analysis also unmasks operations of power that are simultaneously productive and repressive. The thesis concludes by arguing that histories of difference and discontinuity should always be accompanied by histories of continuity, if the workings of institutional power are to be better understood.