The Transition from Sovereign Torture to Digital Spectacle: A Genealogical Study of The Spinner’s Tale and The Election

Abstract

In Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault charts the historical displacement of the "spectacle of the scaffold" by the invisible mechanisms of disciplinary power. However, the digital age has disrupted this linear trajectory, facilitating a return to the spectacle as a central apparatus of governance. This article employs a genealogical framework to analyze the mutation of the spectacle in Omar Shahid Hamid’s postcolonial fiction, specifically The Spinner’s Tale (2015) and The Election (2024). By integrating the concepts of Sovereign Power, Governmentality, and Biopolitics, this study argues that the spectacle has re-emerged not as an archaic relic, but as a sophisticated political technology. The analysis reveals a bifurcation in this return: The Spinner’s Tale illustrates the resurrection of sovereign terror, where the militant Ausi reclaims the right to kill through the digital broadcast of execution, creating a regime of truth rooted in shock. Conversely, The Election depicts a neoliberal "spectacle of entertainment," where media moguls manage the "field of visibility" to manufacture political consent, transforming the electorate into commodified data points. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that the transition from sovereign torture to digital spectacle represents a refinement of control, where the political subject is no longer merely disciplined but governed through the strategic production of visual reality.