Manipulated Private and Public Spheres : The Use of Control Technologies by Totalitarian Regimes

• Main Author: Mahzoon, Alireza
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för planering och mediedesign 2012
• Subjects: Public sphere; Private sphere; Totalitarianism; Enclosure; Panopticism; Reproductivity; Sexuality; Medicalization; Surveillance.; Specific Languages; Studier av enskilda språk; Sociology; Sociologi; General Literature Studies; Litteraturvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-4344

In my paper, I explore how totalitarian regimes use technology to break the borders between the private and public spheres, through the study of two fictional works. Reflecting how real regimes operate, these fictional totalitarian regimes apply technology to extend the sphere of public authority. Exploring the idea, I am going to compare two totalitarian regimes in different periods of time. The first one is the Republic of Gieald, which is depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale 1985 by Margaret Atwood, and the second one is the society presented in the movie The Island, directed by Michael Bay. By technology in my paper, I mean it in the most comprehensive sense of the term, modern invented technologies and institutions after 18th century in post Industrial Revolution era. In what follows, I am applying the concepts, which are the product of control invention. I will argue that the states penetrate into private sphere by imposing repressive rules for having sex or reproductivity. Moreover, I portray that the states use different forms of media and surveillance in private and public spheres, to enlarge the state.