Undoing the Myth of Ayn Rand’s Prescient Dystopia: An Understanding of Atlas Shrugged’s Hegemonic Powers

Abstract

This thesis questions how Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged managed to become such an influential piece of literature for the proliferation of neoliberal ideology. By looking at various aspects, such as the place of the novel within the dynamics of hegemony, the novel's mythologizing discourse and Atlas Shrugged's position within the Utopian canon, it tries to come to grasps with the work's seductive and convincing narrative. Resulting from the latter inquiry, this thesis takes an activist stance, by unveiling how Rand's narrative is manmade, constructed and deliberately trying to establish a new religion for a new political creed.