Optimize Your Life! Work, Automation, and Instrumentarianism in Contemporary German Utopian Literature

abstract:The article analyzes two recent German novels, Die Optimierer by Theresa Hannig and QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling, regarding their depiction of societies undergoing datafication and automation processes and argues that instead of conforming to more common dystopian visions as anti-individualist, the depicted societies are highly individualized in their engagement with social media. Even though the political and economic systems in both novels function differently, both claim that the already existing surveillance capitalism will be further entrenched and that instrumentarian power structures will be established to shape the behavior of citizens for the system's benefits. The article reads the novels as warnings against instrumentarian mechanisms that are enhanced by processes of automation and algorithmic control.