Browsing by Author "Lina Berra.Nadine Belqyes MEZRAG, Ms. Amel BENIA"

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    Dystopia, Empowerment, and Resistance in Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police.
    (UNIVERSITY OF MOHAMED BOUDIAF, 2022-06) Lina Berra.Nadine Belqyes MEZRAG, Ms. Amel BENIA
    ABSTRACT Dystopian literature often aims to provide visions of possible futures where humanity as a whole can be endangered. Such writers, regardless of language and ethnicity, aim to warn readers of the possible threats to privacy, security, and freedom. This dissertation, therefore, examines the notion of what dystopia and totalitarianism have meant to individuals throughout the history of development of a dystopian society by examining Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police. It examines Ogawa’s unique portrayal of a dystopian society and a totalitarian government. It further aims to investigate the tropes used by the “Memory Police” in erasing objects, abstract concepts, animals, plants, and above all, the memory of those same things. Through censorship, torture, and surveillance, the totalitarian government of the unnamed island succeeds in slowly erasing and even eroding human bodies of the characters. Additionally, this study takes a closer look at how the totalitarian government of the island embodied in the “Memory Police” affects individuals including their ways of resistance and leads to subtle ways of empowerment against the regime.