Dystopia, Empowerment, and Resistance in Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police.
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Date
2022-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF MOHAMED BOUDIAF
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Key Words: Dystopia, resistance, totalitarianism, totalitarian government, empowerment, Yoko Ogawa.