The Construction of Power in China Miéville’s Novel The City & the City
The novel The City and the City by British writer and academician China Miéville is a combination of science fiction, weird fiction, and crime genres. The novel reflects Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two imaginary cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, represent the opposing poles. Besźel diff...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Istanbul University Press
2024-06-01
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| Series: | Litera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/40F96D2EF34148D6B2072F5896F9AA62 |
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| Summary: | The novel The City and the City by British writer and academician China Miéville is a combination of science fiction, weird fiction, and crime genres. The novel reflects Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two imaginary cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, represent the opposing poles. Besźel differs from the Western, liberal, and developed Ul Qoma with its governance and lifestyle similar to Eastern Bloc countries. Meanwhile, although they exist in the same place spatially, Besźel and Ul Qoma are forbidden to one another. The citizens of the two cities are not allowed to perceive anything about the other city. The novel offers a critique of established dualisms in Western philosophy. The knowledge of societies is built through exclusions and discriminations. The knowledge of the two cities, constructed metaphysically, is forbidden to one another. The knowledge of the opposition of the two cities is supported by a disciplinary discourse. Social practices that constantly maintain and reproduce the distinction between the two cities are ensured by the continuity of surveillance in Besźel and Ul Qoma. The organization in the novel called Breach is the force that watches over the two cities. In the novel, the knowledge of distinction is the knowledge of power. The discourses developed by the power to protect itself ensure its survival. As two separate societies that are constantly controlled and disciplined, the two cities also serve as examples of the strengthening of power through surveillance in the modern period. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the construction of power and knowledge of power in The City and the City. For this purpose, the study presents an evaluation of how knowledge of power is constructed and used in the modern tradition of thought with support from Foucault’s views on discourse and power. |
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| ISSN: | 2602-2117 |