Surveillance from Orwell to Orwell: the power of vision in popular culture

In Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Orwell pictures a powerful force of totalitarian surveillance that watches, deters and controls. The idea of surveillance has been a popular theme inspired by Nineteen Eighty-Four and explored by popular culture. This paper focuses on the presentation and reflection of surveillance in Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece as well as novels and videogames inspired by it. In 1985 (1983) by György Dalos and 1Q84 (2009-2010) by Haruki Murakami, the authors explore possible changes and variations based on or borrowing an Orwellian imagination of surveillance. Videogames, on the other hand, approach the idea of surveillance in a more immersive and experimental way. In Papers, Please (2013), Beholder (2016), Replica (2016) and Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You (2016), the player – whether inside the screen as a virtual participant of the event or beyond the game in reality as an experiencer – becomes both the subject and the object, both the executor and the victim of surveillance.