The aim of the present thesis is to analyse a selected number of contemporary Anglo-American dystopian novels from the perspective of the control that the state exercises over its inhabitants through the control of the (female) body. The thesis points out that in the selected novels the female body is functionalized and it is presented either as a slave, a reproduction machine or a machine for the sexual gratification of men. Women, in this context, have limited movements as well as limited language communications. The analysed novels reveal that this social control could not be understood solely through Foucault’s notion of society control, but rather it needs to be seen as a new mixture of said society and the society of spectacle of classical age. The thesis therefore argues that this new system would be better defined as network control, because it consists of more control towers, which are branched and hidden. The thesis also establishes, that the female narrators use the telling or writing of their story as a means of escaping and taking back what was previously taken from them. However, the analysis also shows that, contrary to expectation the narrators’ goal is not to demolish the system, but rather to re-gain their personal freedom which they seem to be successful in. In conclusion the thesis shows that the analysed dystopian novels preserve their utopian core in their ability to predict a potential better future in which the system or the nation could be destroyed.
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