Surveillance in literature: stalking in the name of safety

Abstract

We have come a long way from the days of human spies to strange gadgets of James Bond or Mission Impossible to the microchips and drones to the government funded agencies like National Security agency that have access to all the telephone and Internet records through the Telecom companies. Surveillance can be viewed as a violation of privacy, while authoritarian governments seldom have any domestic restrictions as against the so called liberal democracy. Over the past 20 years surveillance has become an increasingly important topic within both academic and public debate. A society where privacy and human dignity is eroded or abolished completely or the social divisions and exclusions that are fostered warning us about the current trend of our age.