The colonizer and the colonized: A postcolonial approach to Brave New World

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ilam University

10.22132/tel.2010.66110

Abstract

Postcolonial studies analyze the power relationship between the colonizer and the colonized people and tries to show the dominance of the colonizer over the colonized people not only in political, but also in social, cultural, and psychological aspects of life. The aim of this paper is to show how Brave New World (1975), a dystopia by Aldous Huxley, is strongly in line with postcolonial approach, and how it reveals some traces of Britain postcolonial attitude toward the colonized people. One of the key concepts which Edward Said (1979) introduces to literary criticism is ‘othering’. This concept can be traced well in the novel about the character called John and also his mother Linda. The governors of England consider John and Linda as inferior, savage, and dangerous persons who is an alien and an “other” for their society. Exile is another postcolonial term which is well applicable to this novel. According to this postcolonial definition both John and his mother are in exile because both of them are separated from their true culture. Other postcolonial conceptions such as subaltern, and cultural diversity shed light upon the unexplained, but seemingly simple plot and structure of Brave New World. Finally, the conclusion focuses on the fact that in Brave New World both John and Linda are others who are sacrificed because of the imperial oppression of the World State.

Keywords

Teaching English Language
Volume 4, Issue 2
December 2010
Pages 141-151

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History

  • Receive Date: 19 January 2010
  • Revise Date: 10 June 2010
  • Accept Date: 02 July 2010
  • First Publish Date: 01 December 2010

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