Spatial Construction of Brave New World from the Perspective of Literary Cartography

Abstract

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World constructs two contrasting yet mutually reflective social spaces through the juxtaposition of the World State and the Savage Reservation, revealing the tensions among technological rationality, institutional discipline, and human nature. Drawing upon Robert Tally's theory of literary cartography, this paper examines the awakening of topophrenia and the spatial construction of the novel from the perspective of literary space. It focuses on the metaphorical functions of literary cartography in representing civilizational conflicts, cultural divergence and ideological tensions, which together constitute a complex network of power discourse. Furthermore, this paper investigates the influence of power space on character identity formation and explores the utopian paradox and dystopian essence embedded in the novel from the perspective of heterotopian space. The study demonstrates that the World State, characterized by a highly standardized and institutionalized spatial order, eliminates individual differences through technological rationality and disciplinary mechanisms, whereas the Savage Reservation, as a heterotopian space, preserves primitive human emotions, religious beliefs, and experiences of suffering. This paper argues that literary cartography serves not only as a spatial narrative strategy but also as an intellectual practice to rethink social order, power relations and the potential of free space in the future, which provides a new theoretical perspective for studies on spatial politics in dystopian literature.