What does ‘humanity’ mean and when can someone be deemed human? Unlike Foucault, Michel de Certeau has argued that people can, even during the most extreme circumstances, choose what to do with...Show moreWhat does ‘humanity’ mean and when can someone be deemed human? Unlike Foucault, Michel de Certeau has argued that people can, even during the most extreme circumstances, choose what to do with whatever society gives them. Dystopian novels and films usually depict fictional future societies and these thought-provoking experiments are therefore a good place to apply De Certeau’s theory and to see if these characters really do have the so-called agency that De Certeau argues they have and whether or not that makes them human. My first chapter will explain what De Certeau’s theories about individual agency and humanity as detailed in The Practice of Everyday Life (1980) entail and how I will use his ideas when close-reading two cases of dystopian novels and one dystopian film. Second, I will analyse to what extent De Certeau’s theory about individuality and freedom of choice can be applied to George Orwell’s 1984 or whether the society in 1984 truly transgressed individuality and the freedom of choice as Foucault argued the authorities in totalitarian regimes could. Third, I will discuss Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go. The main characters in this novel are so-called ‘clones’ and as such, they are labelled as ‘non-human’. With the use of De Certeau, I will investigate the boundary between human and non-human in this novel and whether it is possible or not to cross that boundary. Last, I will apply the theory to the film Blade Runner in which a distinction is made between humans and cyborgs, a distinctions that is blurred by the concept of ‘memory’ – the cyborgs are programmed with childhood memories, which arguably grants them humanity. In short, this thesis will explain with the use of De Certeau’s theories when a person is deemed human by the rest of society in each of these works and whether these findings can also be seen as key items for what ‘humanity’ means in the world outside of fiction.Show less
This thesis follows in the great popularity of first Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy and later Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy, both works of dystopian fiction aimed at young adults....Show moreThis thesis follows in the great popularity of first Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy and later Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy, both works of dystopian fiction aimed at young adults. This thesis will argue that the identities of the female protagonists of these trilogies are both formed, moulded, by their respective oppressive (dystopian) societies, but that they eventually take their own fates and that of their societies in their own hands in order to change it for the better, thus becoming active agents in their own lives. Although Katniss Everdeen remains a pawn of the system which requires her to perform various (gender) roles until the very end, her conclusion signifies that she has learned to discriminate between the real and the appearance of the real: she kills President Coin, the next evil dictator, and allows a peaceful and stable future for herself as well as for the entire nation. Similarly, Tris Prior is for a long time confined to thinking according to her society’s faction system, but she ultimately recognizes the fallibility of this system which only creates prejudice, social division, and limits identity formation. Tris is essential in taking down this faction system and allowing her society a chance to start afresh.Show less
