A room in the hotel Alphaville : An essay on surveillance and exposed bodies in Haruki Murakami's After Dark

Abstract: This essay analyses the novel After Dark, written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It examines, from a Foucaultian perspective, how the novel presents a modern panoptic society. It is discussed how surveillance and objectification are connected and how they behave within the panoptic structure. Also, it is discussed how certain characters in the novel, both male and female, respond with fear to such a society and how this fear is portrayed in different ways because of their respective genders. With regards to gender theory, there is material from Judith Butler and other gender theorists included in the essay, theorists who highlight questions such as objectification and dichotomous structures. The conclusion is that there exists a panoptic fear in the novel and that men and women react differently because of their roles within that social structure.