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The Creep’s Dilemma: The Novel in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2026

James Draney
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Abstract

This essay examines novels by Tao Lin and Caroline Kepnes alongside data companies’ managerial literature to account for the relation between consumer surveillance and contemporary fiction. First, it identifies the creep as a character type who appears in novels about digital life. Second, it shows that the creep, usually in the guise of an online stalker, shares a key concern with the platforms that structure the commercial space of the Internet: both must conceal the extent of their surveillance for fear of scaring away their object or customer. This essay draws out the literary genealogy of the creep by revisiting canonical theories of the novel and disciplinary surveillance.

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Type
Essay
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PMLA , Volume 140 , Issue 5 , October 2025 , pp. 802 - 816
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Modern Language Association of America

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