Narrative Mobility of Optics from Panopticon to Synopticon in Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo by Mansoor Adayfi

Abstract

This study examines Mansoor Adayfi's memoir, Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo by utilizing Jeremy Bentham's concept of ‘panopticon’ and Mathiesen’s concept of ‘synopticon’ to explore narrative mobility. Adayfi's firsthand experience intersects with Bentham's theoretical framework which offers a nuanced understanding of surveillance politics in prisons like Guantanamo. By employing the narrative analysis, this study scrutinizes Adayfi's memoir through the metaphor of ‘optics’ and presents a shift where the observer is not a captor or a guard of the prison but a captive himself. The panopticon narrative (inmate watching many) of this memoir challenges the invisibility of the atrocities of the captors and legal doctrines obscuring inmate visibility. The close reading of the text projects a transition from the panopticon to Mathiesen’s concept of the synopticon system where readers (many) watch the few (captors). This approach enables a deeper comprehension of narrative mobility, makes invisible visible, and also amplifies marginalized voices within carceral narratives.