Reverse Spectacle in Dave Eggers' The Circle: A Panoptic Perspective.

The paper analyzes the novel The Circle by Dave Eggers from 'reverse spectacle' perspective, which is an inherent mechanism of panopticism. Foucault elaborates on Bentham's panopticism and associates its function with reverse spectacle. Reverse spectacle is a mechanism by which a few people have complete surveillance over a majority, whereas in spectacle, a majority of people have surveillance over a few people. This mechanism is at work in the dystopian novel The Circle. The Circle, a reputed company, conducts surveillance of almost all people around the world with its digital dominance. The company gains supremacy due to its virtual dominance, and uses it to reverse the power structure in the real world. All this is made possible via constant surveillance by the small company over a larger community, i.e., the world. The modus operandi of the company is shown in the paper as an instance of reverse spectacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]