Author :
Abstract
Toplumsal baskı ve kontrol temaları, alternative dünya senaryolarını tasvir eden distopik kurguda oldukça önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu kurmaca toplumsal düzenler, gerekli önlemler alınmadığı takdirde ortaya çıkabilecek daha kötü olası senaryoları tasvir etmektedir. Bu eserlerde, bireysellik, bir toplumun sözde refahını sağlayabilmek adına bastırılabilir ve yöneten gücün kolektif çıkarlarına bu anlamda daha çok önem verilebilir. Bu çalışma bu bağlamda, distopik anlatılarda toplumsul baskının ve kontrolün temsilini, çalışma kapsamında seçilmiş üç spekülatif metin olan H. G. Wells’in A Modern Utopia, Aldous Huxley’in Cesur Yeni Dünya ve George Orwell’in Bin Dokuz Yüz Seksen Dört eserlerinin konu ile alakalı ikincil kaynaklara göndermeler üzerinden yapılan analizi ile tartışmaktır.
Keywords
Abstract
The themes of oppression and control play a highly significant role in dystopian fiction which illustrates alternative world scenarios. These fictional social orders portray possible worse scenarios unless certain necessary measurements are taken. In these portrayals, individuality is suppressed for the alleged welfare of the society and the collective interests of a ruling body are accordingly highlighted. The aim of this study is therefore to discuss the representation of oppression and control in dystopian narratives through the analysis of the three selected speculative texts, namely A Modern Utopia by H. G. Wells, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell with specific references from relevant secondary sources.
Keywords
- Oppressıon And Control In Utopıan And Dystopıan Fıctıon The Journal of Academic Social Science Yıl:9, Sayı: 115, Nisan 2021, s. 64-73
- fallacies … or ways of life we must be sure to avoid” (Claeys, 2010: 107). In a similar vein,
- to view as considerably worse than the society in which the reader lived” (1994: 9). As can be
- society (Alberro, 2020). This illustration in a dystopian text, which may “confront and criticise
- demonstrates how the future might be unless certain measurements are taken (Kayıscı, 2014:
- (Baccolini and Moylan, 2003: 1-2). In a similar vein, it is also possible to come across such a
- some determinate direction” (Wells, 2005: 173). However, the depiction of the Dull changes radically since they do not have sufficient
- think clearly” (Wells, 2005: 174). Lastly, the Base have “a narrower and more persistent
- cruelty” (Wells, 2005:174). Such classification demonstrates that Wells places people into fixed
- community as a whole” (Wells, 2005: 66). Wells hereby shows how the power and control of
- children will be the adults of tomorrow (Rayward, 1999: 568). As can be seen, although Wells
- “the subordination of humanity to the machine and to the scientific ideal” (Claeys, 2010: 115). Furthermore, people in the New World are divided into five categories in Brave New
- (Abanazır, 1985: 24). Twelve World Controllers are in control of this breeding system, which
- “the past has been erased” (Claeys, 2010: 115). In this respect, stability is what matters for the State. Therefore, it should be maintained
- follows: You can’t make flivvers without steel- and you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. (Huxley, 2004: 193-94)
- 2004: 42). In this regard, individuals are constantly offered temporary pleasures like soma and
- linked” (Huxley, 2004: 17). This process causes them to grow with “an instinctual hatred of
- books and flowers” (Huxley, 2004: 17). Accordingly, the link with nature and books is
- this world turns people into “mindless, overly-sexualized machines” (2010: 81). Similarly,
- instability” (DeVido, 2012: 63). Therefore, individuals are motivated to have sexual intercourse with different individuals,
- norm in the New World and is a means of oppression (Claeys, 2010: 115). Lenina and Bernard,
- anything should go wrong, there’s soma” (Huxley, 2004: 194). Hence, Huxley’s dystopia keeps
- servility: the servility of fear, strikingly portrayed in Orwell’s 1984; and an unconscious, even a
- happy servility, perfected by the methods of population production” (1962: 332). Unlike Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
- developments such as telescreen and helicopters (Stock, 2019: 7). Citizens are kept under
- like Ingsoc, Miniluv, sexcrime and thoughtcrime” (Abanazır, 1985: 47). It aims at exterminating
- which to express it” (Orwell, 2017: 83-4). This aim renders thoughtcrime almost impossible
- defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten” (Orwell, 2017: 84). Thus, it is
- the State, that is Ingsoc: “Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak” (Orwell, 2017: 84). Furthermore, the use of telescreen and helicopters is crucial in watching and designating
- 1977: 217). It is severely punished when caught. Winston, the member of the Ruling Party in
- else follows” (Orwell, 2017: 128). This freedom is denied to citizens by the State that oppresses
- (Orwell, 2017: 164). Thinking is not permitted or encouraged in Oceania, which is at war with
- killed, then to distort it and dirty it” (Orwell, 2017: 104-5). Sexuality is oppressed because it is against the State that is against individual pleasures.
- time” (Orwell, 2017: 209-10). Sex stands for freedom and is linked to human nature; therefore,
- Party’s numerous organisations” (1959: 158). As can be understood, the Party bans any
- (Tan, 2020: 303). Its plot focuses on “the revolt of an intellectual of the Outer Party”
- (Lowenthal, 1969: 169). The Party organizes hate weeks; uses television for propaganda;
- extinguished by The Party” (DeVido, 2012: 102). In this respect, Syme is reported by the children. Similarly, Winston is reported by the
- accept, “2 + 2 = 5” (Orwell, 2017: 440). O’Brien’s following comments on the Party
- (Orwell, 2017: 405-6). Hence, it is the world of the Party and Big Brother presented in Nineteen
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