The Art of Totalitarianism: A Critical Analysis of George Orwell’s "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Joyce Carol Oates’s "Hazards of Time Travel" and Yoko Ogawa’s "The Memory Police"

Abstract

Building on Edward Said’s notion of worldliness, this thesis critically analyses three novels: George Orwell’s "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Joyce Carol Oates’s "Hazards of Time Travel" and Yoko Ogawa’s "The Memory Police", and attempts to answer the research question of how these novels analyse and critically reflect on their present times in view of the questions of surveillance, manipulation and totalitarian control. This thesis approaches this question in two steps: first, it locates the specific novel within its contemporary situation and discusses how the situation is reflected within the novel, and second, it close reads and critically analyses how the different authors regard the questions of surveillance, manipulation and totalitarian control. Concepts such as the infallibility of the leader, panopticism, cultural memory, and kako no kokufuku are used in the analysis of the respective novels and inform the close reading. Ultimately, this thesis underlines the importance and value of literature as a heuristic tool to be used by readers to analyse and critically reflect upon socio-political situations.