The Watchman in Pieces

Spanning nearly 500 years of cultural and social history this book examines the ways that literature and surveillance have developed together as kindred modern practices. As ideas about personhood--what constitutes a self--have changed over time so too have ideas about how to represent shape or invade the self. The authors show that since the Renaissance changes in observation strategies have driven innovations in literature; literature in turn has provided a laboratory and forum for the way we think about surveillance and privacy. Ultimately they contend that the habits of mind cultivated by literature make rational and self-aware participation in contemporary surveillance environments possible. In a society increasingly dominated by interlocking surveillance systems these habits of mind are consequently necessary for fully realized liberal citizenship.

David Rosen is associate professor of English at Trinity College, and Aaron Santesso is associate professor of Literature at Georgia Tech.