BIOPOLITICS OF BODY IN ALDOUS HUXLEY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD

Aldous Huxley is a well-known English writer who has had a major influence on the subsequent writers directly or indirectly. A prolific writer of a variety of books including novels, short stories, essays, screenplays, and travel books, Huxley is especially famous for the novel Brave New World (1932). The novel depicts the World State in 632 A. F. (after Ford); it is controlled by Mustapha Mond, and people are born through artificial wombs. Since the novel was published, it has attracted much attention not only in the field of literature but also in the field of biology. Hailed as one of the most outstanding dystopian novels, the novel provides precise delineations of a racist and totalitarian regime, the World State, characterized by the advanced biotechnology, overpowering hedonism as well as deliberately devised emotional numbness. It is obvious that life, especially the biological existence of people, becomes not only the cornerstone but also the prey of politics—biopolitics. Michel Foucault’s term, biopolitics, is the basis of the biopolitical frame, within which, Brave New World is closely examined in this paper. The novel reflects a biopolitical aim which is to shelter and improve life through the biological regulation with advanced bio-science as well as biotechnology. In this respect, this study intends to carry out a detailed analysis of biopolitics reflected in Brave New World, represented by biological regulation pertaining to life making and setting, medicalization, and sexuality.