The title I have chosen for my English Degree dissertation is
"submission of the indvididual in dystopian fiction".  The tutor says
its too general and I need to find an argument or a problem that
warrants investigation.  Can you provide some ideas of theoretical
analysis that could be use??

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 14 Feb 2006 09:51 PST

Dear Paula Jane, 

Could you please be more specific regarding what you?re looking for: 
- An idea on how to limit the project, making it doable (perhaps a
specific series - Left Behind jumps to mind)
- Or ideas for the theoretical background, that would help you deal
with the subject you had in mind?

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Clarification of Question by paula_jane-ga on 23 Feb 2006 06:23 PST

The books I will be looking at for my disseration are 1984, The
Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World.  I want to see whether personal
human happiness is attainable in a totalitarian state through studying
these fictional dystopian societies.  Was thinking maybe of applying
Freud's pleasure-unpleasure principal and looking at this essay
"Civilisation and It's Discontent".  Do happiness and freedom have to
go hand in hand?, do the protagonists in the texts restrict their own
chances of happiness through their resistance to the new system and
focus on the past (through flashbacks/memories etc).  What do you
think? Any other ideas about theoretical stances?  Ideas of how this
could be addressed in general.  Thanks and TTFN Paula Jane