Abstract (eng)
The dystopian novels 1984, written by George Orwell, and A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess take up alarming political and scientific developments of their time and satirise them in order to demonstrate how dangerous and open to abuse they are. The underlying idea of both novels is the notion of human liberty, for both authors depict a world where freedom is seriously infringed and restricted. In order to analyse the aspects of liberty as represented in the two novels, it is necessary to grasp the notion of liberty as a philosophical concept. For this purpose Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty, which distinguishes between positive and negative freedom, provides a suitable basis for further investigation. As the analysis has shown, both conceptions, the positive and the negative one, can be observed in both novels: Orwell presents us with a highly totalitarian state, which radically interferes in the lives of its citizens limiting the area of negative liberty to a minimum. Manipulation techniques, such as doublethink and Newspeak, narrow down the area of positive liberty and establish a vast system of thought control. Anthony Burgess criticises in his novel the behaviouristic methods and ideas of his time, which sought to condition humans. Burgess holds that humans cannot be programmed; otherwise they will cease to be humans if they cannot choose autonomously between good and evil. Both novels contain several philosophical implications, the idea of liberty, however, represents the main issue and the focus of my thesis.