الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The interaction between fiction and reality highlights the importance of the ethical aspect. Accordingly, in spite of belonging to a religious base, ethics still has an undeniable influence on all fields of life, especially literature. This dissertation examines the intensive influence of the ethical perspective on two of Atwood’s speculative, dystopian and post-apocalyptic subgenre novels, belonging to two different eras; Oryx and Crake (2003) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). These two novels reveal how ethics functions in socio-historical contexts. The study also delineates the interdependent co-relation between fiction and reality. The structure of ethical criticism has thus elucidated how post-apocalyptic literature is an expression of cultural trends, fixations and contemporary fears of end-of-the world speculative fiction. Through the dissertation, it is proved that literature is a versatile tool which is relevant to many topics and situations in the real world; thus, there is still hope in change. The dissertation illustrates how societies can recover from traumatic events by searching for their real identities, finding an exit from the fake self to the real one. The real self cannot be managed unless it sticks to ethics and moralities which are unchangeable structures. |