Fearing an Inhuman(e) Future: The Unliterary or Illiterate Dystopia of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
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2009
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Though not necessarily recognized as a major canonical work of English literature, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World is the paradigm of the modern social satire. The novel, a combination of dystopia, satire, science fiction and perhaps more, is set in the distant yet horrifyingly familiar future of A.F. 632 (Year of our Ford). In this time, Huxley depicts a supposed utopian world free of problems. Nevertheless, the novel also shows how this modern human society’s elimination of problems eliminates its humanity. My thesis specifically focuses on the elimination of humanity as manifested in the lack of literature and literacy throughout the novel. Huxley’s use of allusion and parody, almost Joycean, to other great literature of the past sets his novel apart from others like it and makes the work truly universal and lasting.