Individualism and totalitarianism in Aldous Huxley and Anthony Burgess

Abstract

This dissertation will be primarily concerned with how the notions of individualism and totalitarianism feature and develop in the Dystopian novels of Aldous Huxley and Anthony Burgess. In the four principal novels I shall be considering; Huxley' s "Brave New world" (1932) and Burgess's "The Wanting Seed" (1962), "A Clockwork Orange" ( 1962) and "1985" (1978), the main focus will be on the various ways totalitarianism manifests itself, together with a close examination of the predicament of the individual struggling to assert his individuality and free moral choices in a controlled, often collective society. In order to consider the above novels and the notions of individualism and totalitarianism in a wider perspective, I also propose to provide a relevant literary and ideological background to the genres and concepts implied.