A Variety of Perspectives: The Role of the Narrator in Selected British Dystopian Novels
| Thesis title in Czech: | Rozmanitost hledisek: role vypravěče ve vybraných britských dystopiích |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | A Variety of Perspectives: The Role of the Narrator in Selected British Dystopian Novels |
| Key words: | Dystopie|narativní situace|fokalizace|Aldous Huxley|George Orwell|Kazuo Ishiguro|vypravěč. |
| English key words: | Dystopia|narrative situation|focalization|Aldous Huxley|George Orwell|Kazuo Ishiguro|narrator. |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2020/2021 |
| Thesis type: | Bachelor's thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | Mgr. Petra Johana Poncarová, Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 09.12.2020 |
| Date of assignment: | 09.12.2020 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 15.12.2020 |
| Date and time of defence: | 08.09.2021 09:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 16.08.2021 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 08.09.2021 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | Mgr. Miroslava Horová, Ph.D. |
| Guidelines |
| The objective of the present study is to analyse the narrative techniques utilized in such prominent works of dystopian literature as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. The thesis will strive to identify and interpret the role of the narrator in the forenamed novels, with a special emphasis on the point of view from which the novels are narrated and on the different voices present in them. The study will also aim to compare the narrative situation in the texts and determine how or whether it augments the depiction of the fictional worlds, thus making the novels more effective ― or otherwise. As for the choice of the primary texts, the selection is meant to allow for analysing three distinct narrative situations as each of the texts features a different narrative voice. While both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World are written in the third person, the latter presents the reader with an omniscient point of view that enables switching between several characters’ perspectives. Orwell’s novel, on the other hand, is limited solely to the protagonist’s viewpoint, establishing an entirely different narrative situation. Never Let Me Go features a first-person limited perspective where one character acts as both protagonist and narrator, potentially unreliable. The thesis, therefore, will focus on the differences in the novels’ narrative situations and determine the effects that the choice of a specific perspective produces. In terms of theoretical material, it will work with relevant texts from the field of narratology, such as the concepts and terminology established by Gérard Genette and others. |
| References |
| Bibliography Bizzini, Silvia Caporale. “Recollecting Memories, Reconstructing Identities: Narrators as Storytellers in Kazuo Ishiguro's ‘When We Were Orphans’ and ‘Never Let Me Go’ / La Recuperación De La Memoria En La Redefinición De La Identidad: La Narración Como Estrategia Literaria En ‘When We Were Orphans y Never Let Me Go’, De Kazuo Ishiguro.” Atlantis 35.2 (2013): 65-80. JSTOR Clayes, Gregory. “News from Somewhere: Enhanced Sociability and the Composite Definition of Utopia and Dystopia.” History 98.2 (2013): 145-173. JSTOR Drag, Wojcieh. Revisiting Loss: Memory, Trauma and Nostalgia in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014. Elsbree, Langdon. “The Structured Nightmare of 1984.” Twentieth Century Literature 5.3 (1959): 135-141. JSTOR Fokkema, Douwe. “Utopias, Dystopias, and Their Hybrid Variants in Europe and America since World War I.” Perfect Worlds: Utopian Fiction in China and the West. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011. 345-398. JSTOR Fludernik, Monika. An Introduction to Narratology. New York: Routledge, 2009. Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. New York: Cornell University Press, 1983. Heise-von der Lippe, Anya. “Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932).” Handbook of the English Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Ed. Christoph Reinfandt. Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. Matter, William W. “The Utopian Tradition and Aldous Huxley.” Science Fiction Studies 2.2 (1975): 146-151. JSTOR McDonald, Keith. “Days of Past Futures: Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ as ‘Speculative Memoir.’” Biography 30.1 (2007): 74-83. JSTOR Reinfandt, Christoph (ed). Handbook of the English Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. Rodden, John, and John Rossi. The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Sanderson, Richard K. “The Two Narrators and Happy Ending of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’” Modern Fiction Studies 34.4 (1988): 587-595. JSTOR Schmeink, Lars. “Dystopia, Science Fiction, Posthumanism, and Liquid Modernity.” Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016. 18-70. JSTOR Shaddox, Karl. “Generic Considerations in Ishiguro's ‘Never Let Me Go.’” Human Rights Quarterly 35.2 (2013): 448-469. JSTOR Whitehead, Anne. “Writing with Care: Kazuo Ishiguro's ‘Never Let Me Go.’” Contemporary Literature 52.1 (2011): 54-83. JSTOR Woiak, Joanne. “Designing a Brave New World: Eugenics, Politics, and Fiction.” The Public |