Data, Love, and Bodies: The Value of Privacy in Juli Zeh's Corpus Delicti

This essay explores the transformation processes depicted in Juli Zeh's fictional narrative Corpus Delicti, which call attention to the ethical challenges of new forms of surveillance. Initially blinded by the ideology of the surveillance state of the METHODE, the protagonist Mia Holl transforms from a supporter of the healthcare dictatorship into a member of the resistance. By focusing on the surveillance mechanisms of the METHODE, Zeh's fictional narrative opens up a discourse on the value of privacy in the information age. Read together with Roberto Simanowski's Data Love, Zeh's work allows for a reevaluation of the sharing of personal data when it promises societal benefits. Mia Holl's rediscovery of human nature as a love for oneself eventually has the power to challenge the legitimacy of the surveillance state. Through the unravelling of the METHODE's imposed data love as a mechanism of total control, Mia Holl is able to mentally liberate herself from the METHODE's ideology and spark a widespread protest against the state.