Dystopian Narratives: Encounters with the Perverse Sadomasochistic Universe

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn a number of dystopian novels that I explore, including Orwell’s (1949) 1984 and Huxley’s (1932) Brave New World, I identify themes of soul murder, destruction of differences, murder of reality, and attacks on the parental couple as a generative twosome. In my view, dystopian fiction captures, thus, many facets of the perverse sadomasochistic core. I demonstrate that the leaders of dystopian societies are fueled by a desire to debase and eventually eliminate the feeding mother, the Oedipal father, and the creative parental couple by becoming god-like creators of a new and idealized fecal universe. Although dystopian narratives tend to locate the catastrophe in a future social disaster, they represent a psychological breakdown that has already occurred in the past and is, therefore, present in the individual’s internal world. The dystopian narrative enables this internal catastrophe to be projected into a future plot and a cast of characters that stand for both victims and perpetrators in the internal object world. I offer a psychoanalytic perspective, which can help our understanding of the increasing popularity of dystopian fiction among the young adult readership.