Life or Death: Biopower and Racism in Huxley´s Brave New World

Abstract: Aldous Huxley´s Brave New World describes how a totalitarian power has taken control over both body and mind of the whole population. A hierarchical caste system, where a person´s role in society is predetermined long before birth, maintains stability together with brain-washing methods and propaganda. Huxley expressed his fears of what might happen if science was used for the wrong purposes, and wrote his futuristic novel Brave New World in the beginning of the 1930s, inspired by the turbulent world around him. It was a time preoccupied with race and classification of populations, which ended in the disastrous Holocaust. Huxley´s novel is equally important today when eugenics is on the comeback and democracy is challenged by nationalist and populist movements. This essay will consist of a close reading of Brave New World, analyzed from the perspective of the theories of French philosopher Foucault. He launched his concept of biopower in the 1970s, where he linked a negative use of controlling citizens with state racism. The focus of this essay will be to explore how biopower and racism are used by the totalitarian state in the novel to maintain control of the population. The argument will be made that racism, internal division and exclusion are vital tools to achieve that purpose.