Zamyatin’s We: A Reassessment

This paper means to draw attention to the uniqueness of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We as a “heretical” product, a work that stands aloof among modern dystopias in many aspects. Ideologically as well as textually, We is a dynamic, open-ended dystopia, foregrounding ideological free play & narrative indeterminacy. Its articulation of multiplicity of perspectives defies any assertion of absolutism or authority & destabilizes whatever illusion of closure the text may have harbored. Its recourse to various metafictional techniques further unravels a textual world where everything is just in the process of becoming & nothing has already been finished. The departure of We from the realist tradition upheld by other dystopias is significant in negotiating a strategy to counter the official, orthodox narrative & eventually to provide a glimpse of hope for the otherwise dark world