Desire and Empathy in Twentieth-Century Dystopian Fiction

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 1-24

3. The Sexualized Proletariat in Jack London’s The Iron Heel

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 25-50

4. Redemptive Atavism in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 51-69

5. The Sexual Life of the Savage in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 71-92

6. Katharine Burdekin’s Swastika Night, a Gay Romance

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 93-127

7. Distortions of Queer Desire in Ayn Rand’s Anthem

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 129-146

8. Desire and Empathy in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 147-168

9. Ludic Perversions and Enduring Communities in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

   • Thomas Horan

   Pages 169-202

10. Conclusion

    • Thomas Horan

    Pages 203-206

11. Back Matter

    Pages 207-212

    PDF

This book assesses key works of twentieth-century dystopian fiction, including Katharine Burdekin’s Swastika Night, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, to demonstrate that the major authors of this genre locate empathy and morality in eroticism. Taken together, these books delineate a subset of politically conscious speculative literature, which can be understood collectively as projected political fiction. While Thomas Horan addresses problematic aspects of this subgenre, particularly sexist and racist stereotypes, he also highlights how some of these texts locate social responsibility in queer and other non-heteronormative sexual relationships. In these novels, even when the illicit relationship itself is truncated, sexual desire fosters hope and community.

• Russian Revolution
• fascism
• sexuality
• Cold War
• Fordism

• The Citadel, Charleston, SC, USA

  Thomas Horan

Thomas Horan is Associate Professor of English at The Citadel, Charleston, USA. He has previously published articles in a number of journals. He edited Critical Insights: Nineteen Eighty-Four (2016) and is currently editing Critical Insights: Animal Farm.

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