Quantifying the Self: A Posthumanist Exploration of Identity in The Circle by Dave Eggers

This research explores and investigates the impact of quantifying devices, digital tools and surveillance on the identity of the characters in the novel The Circle written by Dave Eggers. The accumulation of social media, surveillance system, and big data companies has brought about a new era of self-quantification, where humans are reduced to measurable statistics and data entries. These circumstances have ignited a new interest in the intersection of technology and human identification, and have raised important questions about the nature of being and existence in this digital era. The present study utilizes qualitative approach and a descriptive research design, which is quite valuable while deciphering particularly speech or literary text. Under the domain of qualitative approach, the present study employs textual analysis as it focused on the text including, dialogues, character and setting. Gary Wolf’s concept of “Quantified self” and Micheal Foucault's concepts of surveillance in his book Punish and Discipline (1995) and “biopolitics” which he gave in his book The Birth of Biopolitics (1979) are taken as theoretical lens for the interpretation of the text.  This research draws on post-humanist theory to explore the ways in which The Circle portrays the tension between human identity and technological control, and to examine the implications of this portrayal for our perception of what it means to be human in the advancing digital age. Dave Eggers’ novel, The Circle, presents a nightmarish portrayal of a near-future in which a powerful tech company, The Circle, creates a digital world that consequently threatens to eradicate individual privacy and autonomy. Through its exploration of a totalitarian corporate culture, The Circle raises significant inquiries about the nature of selfhood, identity, and humanity in the digital age.