Subjectivities in focus

The mise-en-scène of Family Law

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze, from a Foucauldian perspective, the legal and judicial practices of family law and to problematize its functioning as mechanisms of production of a mise-en-scène from which subjectivities are created and in which strategically articulated discursive games operate and dispute truths. Two cinematographic works that portray the judicial litigation of couples around the custody of their children are used to illustrate the production of subjectivities and performances linked to the roles of mother and father. These movies illustrate how the surveillance of the jurisdictional apparatus over families can function as an instrument for normalizing behaviors and reinforcing the performance representation of roles in the social field (male/female man/woman mother/father). This critical contribution raises questions and demands reflection on the universalist legal discourses of protection for the human person, the best interests of the child, the privatization of family law and the legal value of affection.