Silencing, Language and Power Relationship in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
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Date
2018
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Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
This dissertation attempts to study the act of silencing and the relationship between
language and power in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The aim is to provide an analysis of the
way the writer reveals the way silencing is used as a tool of control and oppression, and to show
the manner in which the protagonist's power relationships are changeable and the way he
progresses thanks to his contacts with the main characters: Clarisse McClellan, Captain Beatty
and Professor Faber, in Bradbury's novel. The goal of this study is achieved thanks to Pierre
Bourdieu’s social theory of language and Power developed in his book which is entitled
Language and Symbolic Power, (1991).This dissertation examines the literary work by focusing
on the cultural and socio-historical contexts of the 1950s; it has reviewed the most important
events of the 1950s in order to show their connection to the novel's context, as a first chapter. In
the second chapter, it is deduced that silence functions as a means of control and oppression due
to the ruler’s surveillance and intimidation which lead to people’s fear and passivity. Finally, the
third chapter provides the reader with the idea that language and power are interconnected and
their relationship is a flexible one.
Description
72p.;30cm.(+cd)
Keywords
Citation
Langue, Cultures des Pays Anglophones et Médias