Surveillance and Neoliberalism in Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections

This paper examines how the theme of surveillance appears in Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (2001) and how it connects with the emergent mode of neoliberalism. In the Lambert family, there are multiple layers of surveillance operating on the body and psyche of family members. To begin with, domestic surveillance manipulates at the dinner table where Enid and Alfred discipline their child during dinner by monitoring him until he finishes his meal. This scene reflects what Michel Foucault states as a discipline producing “docile bodies." However, power relationships in family are never stabilized, making the bonds of family fragile. In Gary Lambert's family, it is not parents but his child, Caleb, who monitors the house with surveillance cameras. In case of Gary, he observes his father, Alfred Lambert, in terms of his market value. It is not until Alfred loses his function as “homo economicus" due to disease that he is released from surveillance. The case of Denise shows another form of surveillance—self-surveillance. As if coping with the practice of Panopticon, she internalizes how others see her and disciplines herself in the relationships with Don Armour, Brian Callahan, and Robin Passafaro. Her recognition of male desire leads to the recognition of herself as a human capital, thus she virtually acts as a self-regulating homo economicus. Overall, The Corrections displays how one of the principles of neoliberalism, deregulation, and the concomitant absence of governmental control force the characters to live in the market-oriented society with a sense of surveillance. The episodes of Corecktall and Aslan, newly developed mood-altering substances, illustrate how pharmacology shifts responsibility from the government and corporations to consumers, who must monitor risks of medication by themselves. Chip's experience in Lithuania also shows the absence of government, where people are oppressed just by bare violence. Altogether, the novel explores how under neoliberalism, surveillance structure domestic life, the self and the market.