Consensual Power of Monetization and Manipulated Identity in William Gibson’s Spook Country

S. S. Sindhuja ¹, Dr. S. Mohanasundari²

¹Ph.D., Research Scholar, PG & Research Department of English, Vellalar College for Women, Thindal, Erode – 638012. sindhujasivasamy59@gmail.com

²Assistant Professor, PG & Research Department of English, Vellalar College for Women, Thindal, Erode – 638012. mohanalitt2009@gmail.com

Abstract

In today’s corporate sector of advertising and marketing, the relationship between the employer and the employee is harmonious outwardly. The employee is not forced under the company’s system. However, the institutionalization of the authoritative power happens subtly by stabilizing the norms in the society. The employers are regularized to work within the system as if everything is normal. It is apparent in the novel, Spook Country by William Gibson. Hollis Henry, the central protagonist works in the Blue Ant, a multinational company in which she is manipulated unknowingly. She starts her career as a journalist, but the corporation’s invisible move results in her uncovering the hidden movements of shipping containers. The problem arises when the character deviates from her true self by incorporating the worker identity.  Hollis struggles with the shaped worker identity that has been used as a tool by the company for its own benefit. The paper tries to study the underlying consensual power and the protagonist’s journey in withstanding her identity by concealing the truth that the corporation seeks monetizing power.

Keywords: Corporate power, Hegemony, Technology, Identity, Resistance.