Abstract

In critiquing capitalism, Karl Marx theorized about workers’ alienation as an inevitable consequence of the product and process of labor. The former refers to the incapacity of the worker to own the products of their own labor, while the latter refers to the incapacity of the worker to direct their own actions and consequently, to freely develop their energies. Alienation dates back to the Industrial Revolution, evoked by factory floors and office cubicles that render a worker a disposable “cog in a machine.” Severance offers an engaging window into alienation in a postmodern workplace from the viewpoints of process and self, dramatizing fears surrounding the workplace that trace a direct lineage to Marx and resemble dramatizations in Kafka’s The Castle, the absurdist works of Albert Camus and movies like The Machine (2004). Severance also captures the essence of workers’ resistance against the “conspiracy” of …

Date

July 23, 2024

Authors

Mayank Kejriwal

Book

Reintegrating Severance: Interdisciplinary Insights on Apple TV’s Dystopian Thriller

Pages

117-134

Publisher

Springer Nature Switzerland