Napoleon Schmidt is Dead: A Hystopian Novel

Feindt, Iris (2022) Napoleon Schmidt is Dead: A Hystopian Novel. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This dissertation consists of two sections: a novel, Napoleon Schmidt is Dead, and a critical commentary. The novel is set against the backdrop of East Berlin in the 1980s and tells the story of fifteen-year-old Anna, who starts to question the world she lives in. Strange notes and potatoes form a mysterious trail that Anna hopes will lead her to the truth. The price she pays is her freedom. Although the historical context is real, the novel draws on tropes of dystopian fiction to engender an atmosphere of paranoia. The novel is aimed at a teen audience and is a story of female friendship, rebellion and coming-of-age at a time when the status quo demands uniformity and punishes individuality. It articulates the sense of powerlessness experienced by teenagers within family structures, which is amplified through the restrictions of growing up under an oppressive regime. The critical commentary is divided into five sections, each of which takes as its focus a specific author of dystopian fiction, tracing the ways in which these writers respond to each other’s work. The commentary further investigates the origins and evolution of dystopian fiction, and considers its generic next-of-kin in that context. The original contribution to knowledge lies in the development of the ‘Feindt Principle’, a proposal of a new sub-genre, ‘hystopia’, a new piece of hystopian fiction and the induction of Anna Burns’ novel Milkman (2018) into the canon of hystopian fiction.