The Manipulation And Condemnation Of Biopower In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Aldous Leonard Huxley(1894-1963),a world-famous British novelist,has produced fifty works of different kinds in his writing career.Published in 1932,Brave New World that makes him world-renowned is hailed as “The Trilogy of Dystopia” together with George Orwell's 1984 and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We.The novel depicts an imaginary totalitarian country ruled by genetic technology — the World State in the 26 th century,where people are controlled by rulers from birth to death in terms of biopower in the name of public good and social order.“Biopower” is first proposed by French philosopher Michel Foucault in The History of Sexuality.Combining the theoretical angle of biopower with textual analysis,this thesis analyzes how biopower is enforced to exploit people at all levels and people's vain but hopeful resistance in Brave New World.It reveals the cannibalistic nature of the “brave” New World and the dilemma in which people under the control of seemingly benevolent biopower can't escape being slaughtered.This thesis consists of five parts.The introduction gives a brief overview on Aldous Huxley's major literary achievements and Brave New World.It explores the research direction and value of the thesis by presenting recent critical reviews on the novel abroad and at home.Furthermore,it illustrates the theoretical basis and structure of the thesis.The body part includes three chapters.Chapter one focuses on the whole process of existence from life to death and discusses the imprisonment of human bodies that has become a tool for the rulers to enslave human beings.In the New World,the reproduction of the population has become a fixed pattern where man is artificially manufactured like cars on the assembly lines.In this way the right to life is taken away.The Controllers promote casual sexuality to make people addicted to primitive physical impulses like beasts and then lose the qualities and dignity as man.Under the banner of improving the quality of all human beings,people are strictly classified based on biological racism.Insane and unorthodoxpeople are driven away from the public and are even killed.The life and death of non-human beings like animals and plants is also in the hands of those in power.The seemingly mild biopower actually has potential for killing.Chapter two stresses the erosion of soul caused by biopower.Through “sleep education”,people can only passively accept rigid knowledge that is expected by rulers.Knowledge of the past and high-quality literary books that inherit wisdom are both erased.People in this way lose the ability to think and the right to develop individuality,which makes them the walking dead without soul.The obliteration of internal desires and normal ethics renders people shallow and hinders the formation of sound soul.People as a result will follow any arrangement willingly.Chapter three shows though deeply trapped in the control of power,there are always people who are fighting against power and fighting for rights.Regardless of their failed resistance,heroism embodied in rebellions still brings hope and dignity as humans.The conclusion reviews the operation of impalpable and pervasive biopower in the World State and points out everything in the State mirrors the modern Western society where the so-called“truth” propagated by the ruling class is actually full of loopholes,and is destroying the Western ethical world and ultimately Western civilization.The relationship between biopower and biotechnology reflected in Brave New World shows technology has become a tool for the operation of Western political power,and biopower that seems to cultivate life also implies the tendency of racism to strangle the right to life.Power mechanisms are so “sophisticated” that those involved are always under the “eyes of power” and have spontaneously made cages that fetter both body and soul on their own.Huxley through the creation of the novel alerts readers that they've been unconsciously confined.Modern power mechanism often controls the existence and development of individuals under the banner of “care and protection” and what they can do is keep fighting and hope alive to get rid of the controlled and fooled fate.