‘The carceral’ in literary dystopia: Social conformity in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Jasper Fford’s Shades of Grey and Veronica Roth’s Divergent Trilogy by MARLIZE CHAMBERLAIN submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject ENGLISH STUDIES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: Prof. F. Kalua FEBRUARY 2020 DECLARATION I declare that ‘THE CARCERAL’ IN LITERARY DYSTOPIA: SOCIAL CONFORMITY IN ALDOUS HUXLEY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD, JASPER FFORD’S SHADES OF GREY AND VERONICA ROTH’S DIVERGENT TRILOGY is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. I further declare that I submitted the dissertation to originality checking software and that it falls within the accepted requirements for originality. I further declare that I have not previously submitted this work, or part of it, for examination at Unisa for another qualification or at any other higher education institution. 2 | P a g e SUMMARY This dissertation examines how three dystopian texts, namely Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, exhibit social conformity as a disciplinary mechanism of the ‘carceral’ – a notion introduced by poststructuralist thinker Michel Foucault. Employing poststructuralist discourse and deconstructive theory as a theoretical framework, the study investigates how each novel establishes its world as a successful carceral city that incorporates most, if not all, the elements of the incarceration system that Foucault highlights in Discipline and Punish. It establishes that the societies of the texts present potentially nightmarish future societies in which social and political “improvements” result in a seemingly better world, yet some essential part of human existence has been sacrificed. This study of these fictional worlds reflects on the carceral nature of modern society and highlights the problematic nature of the social and political practices to which individuals are expected to conform. Finally, in line with Foucault, it postulates that individuals need not be enclosed behind prison walls to be imprisoned; the very nature of our social systems imposes the restrictive power that incarcerates societies. KEY TERMS Dystopia; Utopia; Science fiction; Social systems; Social conformity; Post-structuralism; Michael Foucault; Jacques Derrida; Future societies; Satire; Prison; Dystopian fiction; Young Adult Dystopian Fiction; Imprisonment; Power; Hegemony; Discipline; Docility; Carceral; Discourse; Discursive formations 3 | P a g e TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 2: ALDOUS HUXLEY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD ............................................... 46 CHAPTER 3: JASPER FFORDE’S SHADES OF GREY ...................................................... 68 CHAPTER 4: VERONICA ROTH’S DIVERGENT TRILOGY ............................................ 94 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 118 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 123 4 | P a g e INTRODUCTION In Michel Foucault’s exploration of the history and philosophy behind the modern prison in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977), he introduces the idea of ‘the carceral’, a distinctly dystopian notion that suggests that modern society itself is like a prison. As a notion, ‘the carceral’ can be understood as “[t]he generality of the punitive function that the eighteenth century sought in the ‘ideological’ technique of representations and signs” (Foucault 1977: 299). This punitive function “generalized in the sphere of meaning the function that the carceral generalized in the sphere of tactics” (1977: 300). This means that ‘the carceral’, as notion, can be understood as a network of strategies that links punitive practices with ideological representations. In modern society, “official power depends more and more on the ability to acquire a constant flow of information about the activities of the subjects of that power” (Booker 1994: 26). This suggests that in a carceral society, individuals are constantly involved in large, invisible structures of official power. It is the ubiquitous nature of this power and the disciplinary mechanisms of the power relations pervading the individual’s social reality that make carceral societies dystopian, and dystopian societies carceral. The outbreak of the Black Death in the fourteenth century had a devastating effect on Europe and, later, on mankind itself. Its mortality rate was of such a near-apocalyptic scale that mankind was forced to reconsider many aspects of its existing systems in order to ensure its survival. By the end of the seventeenth century, with several epidemics occurring around the world, steps to limit the spread and mortality rate of the plague were taken whenever there was an outbreak. As there is to this day no cure for the plague, the only way the catastrophic aftermath of an epidemic could be minimised was confinement and disciplinary projects. Consequently, when plague broke out in a town, it would be sealed off and individuals would be confined to designated places. Surveillance and inspections were constant and findings were thoroughly reported and documented. These were all disciplinary mechanisms put in place to protect society from what was perceived as possible extinction. In this way, the chaos of a deadly epidemic could be curbed so that a potentially cataclysmic event could be averted. However, this came at a price – an intensification and expansion of power. Foucault states: “Behind the disciplinary mechanisms can be read the haunting memory of ‘contagions’, of the plague, of rebellions, crimes, vagabondage, desertions, people who appear and disappear, live and die in disorder” (1977: 198). This statement connects the disciplinary 5 | P a g e measures of plague quarantine to the disciplinary mechanisms of a dystopian society. The outbreak of a massive disaster such as the plague can be seen as representative of an extraordinary world-ending event in which power is mobilised in order to initiate the societies of Huxley’s Brave New World, Fforde’s Shades of Grey and Roth’s Divergent trilogy to seek out means to protect themselves from the recurrence of such an event. The haunting memory of the world-ending event is the driving force behind the establishment of alternative modes of societal design: these are a means of maintaining a disciplined society in order to make it “the utopia of the perfectly governed city” (Foucault 1977: 198). However, such a city cannot be established without people being constantly subject to the exercise of autonomous power. Foucault argues that the technologies of power embedded in the institutions of incarceration give modern society its carceral nature, thereby making life inside and outside prison the same. This view has a direct link to the social criticism embedded in dystopian literature and is the principal reason why Foucault’s work, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) provides the primary theoretical basis for this dissertation. Foucault’s model of the carceral city is used here as a metaphor for internalised surveillance and disciplinary practices that limit the freedom of people in the same way that a prison does. The carceral contains “a multiple network of diverse elements – walls, space, institution, rules, discourse” (Foucault 1977: 307), which in essence, is a tactical dispersal of different types of elements. More importantly, society as a whole contains several carceral mechanisms “which tend, like the prison, to exercise the power of normalization” (Foucault 1977: 308). This means that the focus falls not on violent force, but on the ability to restrict and alter the will of not only the prisoner, but also of the citizen outside the prison walls. This dissertation examines how Huxley’s Brave New World (henceforth BNW), Fforde’s Shades of Grey and Roth’s Divergent trilogy highlight the flaws of societal structure and the division of classes through vigorous social stratification. The aim is to explore how the instituted social systems achieve conformity through passive coercion, rather than through conventional means of brutally enforced militaristic practices. By looking at the methods used to discipline society to conform to prescribed norms, this dissertation explores how the texts expose the carceral nature, not only of their fictional societies, but also of modern society. Dystopian novels deal with and express concerns about economic, moral and political crises of contemporary society through the use of alternative, yet still very flawed, societal designs of 6 | P a g e futuristic worlds. Moreover, a primary function of dystopian fiction is to act as a critique of existing systems, whether political or social, and to provide “fresh perspectives on problematic social and political practices” (Booker 1994: 19). Contrary to the positive and impossible hopes presented in utopian texts, dystopias postulate potential futures as actual possibilities in which social and political ‘improvements’ result in societies that are seemingly stable and happy, but their