L’âme, prison du corps ? À propos d’un détail du Theophilus in carcere

Following Michel Foucault’s suggestion about the “soul, prison of the body”, which inverses the traditional conception of the body as prison of the soul, I will scrutinize a detail of Viau’s Theophilus in carcere (the astonishing reference to Danae) that permits him paradoxically to capture/ captivate his judges. This detail is exemplary of the way surveillance and enprisonment produces a “soul”, which transforms one’s body into an archive of one’s self.