“Shadows of Insecurity: Exploring Society, Precarity, and the Crisis of Security in American Crime Fiction”

This paper examines the intersection of security, precarity, and power dynamics in American thriller fiction through the lens of Michel Foucault’s theory of power and governmentality. American thrillers often portray worlds of intense social instability, where characters face systemic failures, surveillance, and the erosion of safety—both personal and collective. Applying Foucault's concepts of biopower, disciplinary power, and governmentality, the paper analyses how these thrillers reflect the crisis of security in contemporary society, where institutions meant to protect individuals—such as law enforcement, government, and the family—are increasingly impotent or corrupt. In the context of American thrillers, characters often navigate precarious lives shaped by invisible forces of control and surveillance, illustrating the psychological and social vulnerabilities of individuals in an insecure world Foucault’s concept of governmentality, the way power is exercised through both institutions and individual behaviours, is critical to understanding how these thrillers depict the internalization of control. Characters are frequently subjected to a form of biopower, where their bodies, identities, and actions are regulated by a combination of societal norms, institutional pressures, and self-surveillance. Thrillers such as Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl or Stephen King's The Shining reflect these themes, depicting characters caught in webs of deception, moral ambiguity, and social fragmentation. These works reveal how power functions not only through visible forms of authority but also through more subtle mechanisms that shape behaviour, perpetuate inequality, and create conditions of precarity.

Keywords: Foucault, Power, Precarity, American Thriller, Biopower, Governmentality, Surveillance, Crime Fiction, Social Control, Insecurity.