This study examines how mechanisms of power operate in dystopian literature by applying Michel Foucault’s concept of Panopticism and Posthumanist theory to George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The study aimed to investigate how these novels represent different yet complementary systems of social control and the transformation of human subjectivity. Using a qualitative comparative methodology based on close textual analysis and theoretical interpretation, the study analyzes surveillance, discipline, technological mediation, and the construction of compliant subjects in both texts. The analysis finds that Orwell depicts a fear-based Panoptic regime grounded in surveillance and punishment, whereas Huxley presents a pleasure-based Biopolitical order that regulates individuals through conditioning and engineered desire. Despite these differences, both models produce self-regulating and technologically mediated subjects. The findings suggest that the convergence of disciplinary surveillance and pleasure-based control anticipates contemporary systems of digital monitoring, algorithmic governance, and surveillance capitalism, highlighting the continuing relevance of dystopian literature for understanding modern forms of power and Posthuman subjectivity.
Rabby Imam (Fri,) studied this question.