A critical approach to Aldous Huxley's treatment of the concepts of utopia and dystopia in his Brave New World and Island: A cultural materialist study

This thesis aims to explore Aldous Huxley?s treatment of the concepts of utopia and dystopia by analysing and discussing his dystopian novel Brave New World and his utopian novel Island from the viewpoint of cultural materialism. The two novels are scrutinized with regard to the issue of politics, individuality and social life, and it is seen that there is, in fact, not a clear cut difference in Huxley?s treatment of the concepts of utopia and dystopia. Cultural materialism attaches great importance to the connection between literary texts and the socio-economic and political structures of a society in which they were produced. With this purpose, Brave New World and Island are examined in relation to their historical framework, and the ways in which Huxley criticises the political system of his own age are highlighted. Following the cultural materialists? emphasis that it is quite essential to see through the ideas of those who are overpowered in the society, this study looks for the voices of the suppressed and the marginalised in the novels because it is those people who reveal the codes and the hidden aspects of their society. Hence, it is made clear that instead of offering alternative social structures to those in which they were created, Huxley?s dystopian novel Brave New World and his utopian novel Island create an awareness of the political subordination and oppression to which certain social groups are exp