Date of Award

9-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Supervisor

Ronald Granofsky

Language

English

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of the protagonist in response to power and language in the dystopian novel. I attempt to show that a novel may be classified as dystopian if it fulfills certain factors that posit language and discourse as fundamental devices of power. These three main factors are as follows: the establishment of an official, totalitarian language, evidence of opposing discourses, and the representation of the protagonist as a figure who deconstructs social reality. My primary texts are Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

McMaster University Library