Abstract:

This essay suggests a reading of Dave Eggers's 2013 novel The Circle as a critique of modernity. It argues that Eggers's dystopian novel can be read as an artistic take on Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's philosophical critique of Enlightenment ideology, as put forward most prominently in their Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944/47). The puzzling tendency of "enlightened," rationally-minded individuals to subject themselves to totalitarian and dehumanizing systems is identified as a common concern of the Frankfurt School theorists and of Eggers's dystopia. The Circle, in this perspective, is read as a critical study of the twenty-first-century's version of Enlightenment ideology, and of the social mechanisms that lead to a state of "voluntary servitude." By means of a theory-informed analysis of the novel's principal thematic concerns, it is demonstrated that the world constructed by Eggers exhibits central traits associated with an enlightened society by Horkheimer and Adorno, and it is shown how the novel embeds its depiction of the self-destructive tendencies of this society in a discussion of social media and digital technology. This leads, eventually, to a reconsideration of the intellectual significance of The Circle.

摘要：

这篇文章建议阅读 Dave Eggers 2013 年的小说The Circle作为对现代性的批判。它认为，艾格斯的反乌托邦小说可以被解读为对马克斯·霍克海默和西奥多·阿多诺对启蒙意识形态的哲学批判的艺术诠释，这一点在他们的启蒙辩证法（1944/47）中最为突出。“开明的”、有理性的个人将自己置于极权主义和非人性化系统的令人费解的趋势被认为是法兰克福学派理论家和埃格斯反乌托邦的共同关注点。圆圈从这个角度来看，它被解读为对 21 世纪版本的启蒙意识形态以及导致“自愿奴役”状态的社会机制的批判性研究。通过对小说主要主题关注的理论分析，证明了埃格斯构建的世界表现出与霍克海默和阿多诺开明社会相关的核心特征，并展示了小说如何嵌入对自我的描绘- 在讨论社交媒体和数字技术时，这个社会的破坏性倾向。这最终导致重新考虑The Circle的智力意义。