This article considers Dave Eggers’ 2013 dystopian novel The Circle, which critically explores digital surveillance, alongside Georg Simmel’s social-theoretical writings on the secret, social distance and proximity, and the intersection of social circles. The article shows how Simmel’s social theory illuminates important aspects of secrecy and surveillance in The Circle, including the secret’s constitutive role in individuality and social relations, and allows one to reframe the estranging effect of certain dystopias in terms of Simmelian strangerhood, which is based on the paradoxical unity of closeness and remoteness in social-spatial relations. Conversely, The Circle in certain respects pushes beyond Simmel’s social theory by using literary devices to critically explore social subjectivity and by highlighting elements of 21st century life that challenge or complicate Simmel’s sociological claims. Especially notable in this respect are The Circle’s insights into the affective intimacies between people and their personal technologies that shape our digital social practices. By bringing Simmel’s social theory and The Circle into productive dialogue, this article lays the groundwork for an approach to analysing dystopia that more fully appreciates the genre’s sociological import – including how at least some dystopias implicitly engage in social theorising – than prevailing, literary-formalist approaches to the study of speculative fiction.

中文翻译：

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秘密与圆圈：格奥尔格·齐美尔的社会理论和戴夫·埃格斯的反乌托邦小说

本文探讨了 Dave Eggers 2013 年的反乌托邦小说《The Circle》，该小说批判性地探讨了数字监控，以及 Georg Simmel 关于秘密、社交距离和邻近以及社交圈交集的社会理论著作。本文展示了齐美尔的社会理论如何阐明了“圆圈”中秘密和监视的重要方面，包括秘密在个性和社会关系中的构成性作用，并允许人们根据西美尔的陌生感重新构建某些反乌托邦的疏远效应，这是基于西美尔的陌生感社会空间关系中亲密与疏远的矛盾统一。相反，《圆圈》在某些方面超越了齐美尔的社会理论，通过使用文学手段批判性地探索社会主体性，并强调 21 世纪生活中挑战齐美尔社会学主张或使其复杂化的元素。在这方面尤其值得注意的是 The Circle 对人们与其个人技术之间的情感亲密关系的洞察，这些技术塑造了我们的数字社交实践。通过将齐美尔的社会理论和《圆圈》进行富有成效的对话，本文为分析反乌托邦的方法奠定了基础，该方法比流行的文学形式主义更充分地理解该类型的社会学重要性，包括至少一些反乌托邦如何隐含地参与社会理论化推理小说的研究方法。