Body Boundaries and Gothic Monstrosity in Dystopian Fiction

In this paper I want to explore the monster as a symbol of transformation within the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and to seek insights into the novels by assessing them in the light of the Gothic tradition. Throughout the course of these novels, not only does the monster offer transformation, but also the transgression of the boundaries upon which assumptions both within and without the novel are made. The very definition of what is monstrous becomes undefined and open to speculation. I want to argue that each element in the Gothic framework has, as its point of reference, the body. The body is the site of repression and the locus of the fear that forms the core of Gothic theory. It is also part of the gothic narrative which can transform to become monstrous and which forms the crossroads of the boundaries which are transgressed. It is this focus on the body which makes the Gothic such a powerful influence on modern dystopian texts, shifting the focus from issues of power and control, to the site of the exercise of that power and control: the human body. Dystopias viewed through the Gothic lens unveil the bodies at their centre and the unconscious and hidden elements which play upon these physical spaces.