Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.29162/ANAFORA.v12i1.3
No Life for Old (Wo)Men: Biopolitics and Heterotopia in Ninni Holmqvist’s The Unit
Jelena Pataki Šumiga
orcid.org/0000-0001-8727-3156
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska
Sažetak
According to the WHO, in 2020, the number of people over sixty was five times higher than the number of children under five, whereas by 2050, the global population over the age of sixty is expected to almost double, from 12 to 22% (“Ageing and Health”). Clearly, the elderly population is growing, and so is the need for adequate care and treatment of older individuals. Obsessed with youth, our modern capitalist society views old age as a biological flaw that it seeks to eliminate. As an acutely socially charged genre, dystopian literature thus often addresses ageism and the inhumane attitude to ageing and the elderly. Ninni Holmqvist’s dystopian novel The Unit (2006) describes a near-future Sweden, in which women over fifty and men over sixty are ostracized, exploited as organ reserves, and ultimately killed in favour of younger and more useful individuals. Drawing on Foucault’s theories of heterotopia and biopolitics as mechanisms through which marginalized individuals are systematically oppressed, this paper will analyse how The Unit ostracises and abuses its senior individuals. The aim is to confirm Foucault’s thesis on the carceral nature of modern society, which controls and exploits individuals under the guise of biopolitical protection of life. Next to analysing the dystopian content and narrative strategies of Holmqvist’s novel, since it is under-researched in Croatian academic circles, the paper will contribute to the examination of (literary) age discrimination, largely present in contemporary capitalist society that is driven by youth, material gain, and utility.
Ključne riječi
dystopia, heterotopia, biopolitics, capitalism, Michel Foucault, Ninni Holmqvist, The Unit
Hrčak ID:
332997
URI
Datum izdavanja:
26.6.2025.
Posjeta: 668 *