디스토피아 소설에 나타난 유토피아적 충동 : 조지 오웰의 『1984』와 마가렛 앳우드의 『대리모 시녀이야기』

Abstract

As a critical dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Owell and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood warn us of future dystopian society. Although both Oceania and Gilead are imagined communities, they resemble our modern society in many respects. Citizens in those totalitarian systems can not use language and body at their own disposal. Big Brother-style surveillance system watch an individual’s every moves and regulate their emotion as well. But protagonists in these novels try to write their own story confidentially and have a genuine relation with others. To be a human, their body and sexuality function against a social control and repression. And their desire of narrating stories and forbidden sexuality trigger desperate attempts to restore their lost past and identities through language and body. Although appropriation of language and body is means of totalitarian control of citizen, it could be a route for freedom and liberation from their dystopian reality. Even in dystopian novels, utopian impulse still exists and provokes in readers a determination to prevent nightmare future and to cherish what must not be lost.