In the Eye of the Beholder: The Magnus Archives and Panopticon Surveillance

Abstract

Bentham’s panopticon and Foucault’s concepts of surveillance have often been depicted in media, most notably in works such as George Orwell’s 1984. One text that also deals with these themes but has seen little to no academic attention is the audio fiction podcast The Magnus Archives (2016-21) by Jonathan Sims, which uses its paranormal setting to portray surveillance in its extreme. This thesis investigates the podcast's portrayal of surveillance and its interaction with theories regarding surveillance, arguing that The Magnus Archives depicts surveillance as a power that is centralised and internalised. Those in its system possess relative autonomy; the institute perpetuates panoptic surveillance, the head of the institute employs his own panoptic powers to manipulate and incite fear, the Archivist’s own autonomy in his use of surveillance powers is similarly problematised, and the audience is made to be complicit in the narrative as an observer.