GENDERED SURVEILLANCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A FEMINIST POSTHUMANIST ANALYSIS OF SANDRA NEWMAN'S JULIA (2023)

Abstract

The present study examines the reconstructions of the concepts of surveillance, embodiment, and agency in Julia (2023) by Sandra Newman, guided by the theoretical perspective of Feminist Posthumanism as developed by Rosi Braidotti. The paper examines how Newman reimagines the dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984 through a feminist lens, articulating the gendered experience of being surveilled in the twenty-first century—an era characterised by algorithmic visibility, digital surveillance, and affective regulation. Specifically, the study anticipates the way modern regimes of digital surveillance selectively and systematically regulate women and their bodies, emotions, and virtual presence, and replicate patriarchal structures of control using technology. In examining such dynamics, a close reading of the novel has been conducted based on the framework introduced by Braidotti, focusing on the posthuman aspects of Julia's character as she navigates power through her body, emotions, and relational networks (Braidotti, 2022). This discussion reveals that surveillance, as practised by Orwell, was both institutional and ideological; however, Newman predicts twenty-first-century controls based on data, emotion, and connectivity. Furthermore, the study reveals that surveillance in Julia functions as a form of domination where care, embodiment, and moral resistance are redefined. This research contributes to feminist Posthuman scholarship and surveillance research by demonstrating how Julia, in Newman’s work, critically engages with gendered forms of algorithmic and affective government, shedding new light on agency and resistance in the monitored realities of the twenty-first century.