BEYOND THE WALL OF AN AMBIGUOUS UTOPIA – THE LANGUAGE OF URSULA LE GUIN’S THE DISPOSSESSED

Authors

  • Mirjana Vučković

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2024.16.17

Keywords:

science fiction, ambiguous utopia, artificial language, Pravic

Abstract

The Dispossessed is one of the most popular works of Ursula Le Guin. Published in 1974, it is believed to have been inspired by the cold war between the Soviet Union and the USA. The story is set in Ursula Le Guin’s Hainish Universe, and deals with the differences between an anarchistic-socialist society and a capitalist society on two sister planets, Anarres and Urras. Once a mining colony of Urras, Anarres is the home of revolutionaries who settled on it almost two centuries before the novel begins. They have lived in isolation ever since, and during that period they developed an artificial language, Pravic, which was created in accordance with the highest values of their very strict society. In this paper I will try to explain some words, constructions and anarchistic concepts of this artificial language, while trying to see how this invented language forms the characters and the way they perceive the world around them. Since Ursula Le Guin’s work is mainly about unbuilding the walls which exist between species, races, sexes, or, in this case, societies, we will try to find out what happens when one of the walls is one’s language.

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Published

2024-12-30

How to Cite

Vučković, M. (2024). BEYOND THE WALL OF AN AMBIGUOUS UTOPIA – THE LANGUAGE OF URSULA LE GUIN’S THE DISPOSSESSED. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, 16(1), 355–366. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2024.16.17

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2024): BELLS - volume 16

Section

LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES

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