Narrowing the Private Sphere in Dystopian Novels of George Orwell,Josip Mlakić and Juli Zeh

sužavanje privatnog udistopijskim romanima Georgea Orwella, Josipa Mlakića i Juli Zeh

Abstract

From the law and literature perspective, two researchers, one from the field of law, other from literature theory, try to analyse literary treatment of the private law issue. In other words, we deal with evident narrowing of the private sphere from different entities, as it is presented in the chosen novels: George Orwell’s 1984, Josip Mlakić’s The Friedman Planet, and Juli Zeh’s Corpus Delicti. It is important that novels belong to different times and spaces so the results of the analysis can be used for tracking the focus and its shifting on certain entities that threaten the private sphere. Besides that, we can also notice similar shifting in the political, legal, social, and cultural context during the same period, reaffirming the thesis about dystopia’s narrative tactic: camouflaging contemporary problems as problems of future times. For these reasons, the problem or goal of the research is derived from the potential comparison of changes in the focus of narrative strategies in the three novels and the social changes that have marked the context of these narratives. The research question imposed a methodological approach that involves knowledge from the fields of law and literature, as well as sociology of literature and discourse analysis. Consequently, the study resulted in the recognition of a high degree of similarity or connection between literary (dystopian) and extraliterary treatments of issues in private law.