Space and Surveillance in Jonathan Raban’s Novel Surveillance (2006)

This chapter discusses how Jonathan Raban, in his novel Surveillance (2006), depicts a post-9/11 world where surveillance is used for various purposes. Focusing on how surveillance affects different spaces in the novel – from urban spaces to the cyberspace to people’s private space –, this chapter also takes a close look at how the novel denounces how surveillance has reshaped relationships in the American society after 9/11. From homeland security to homeland insecurity, from a wrong sense of security to an infringement of one’s right to privacy, Raban depicts a world in which surveillance is described as a failing choice. Moreover, this chapter also explores the different ways in which surveillance shapes not only the characters’, but also the writer’s identity.