The Dehumanization of the Fordian Society. Foucauldian Biopower in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Bielefeld University, language: English, abstract: In Brave New World Aldous Huxley explores a dystopian scenario of a centuries-away future where a totalitarian regime utilizes scientific advancements and disciplinary conditioning to form the human species to their vision. Huxley¿s novel explores what happens when society fully cedes its power to a government that subsequently utilizes scientific advancement to improve their control over said society.

Using Michel Foucault¿s power theory and his concept of biopower, I will analyze how the government of Huxley¿s World State successfully exerts biopower by combining regulation of the population and conditioning of the individual to create a hamster wheel of a society that spins in an era of everlasting contentment.

I will first outline the beginnings of political power theory at the examples of enlightenment philosophers Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau and then transition into a more modern perspective on power by twentieth century French philosopher Michel Foucault. The gained insights on political power philosophy I will then apply to Aldous Huxley¿s Brave New World and analyze the government¿s utilization of the examined power variants and to which success they exert these.