The Deconstruction of Language in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange: A Postmodern Analysis

Year 2025, Volume: 35 Issue: 1, 77 - 93, 19.06.2025

Mahmut Kayaaltı

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2024-1486112

Abstract

This study evaluates the deconstruction of language in Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange and highlights the postmodernist aspects of the work. The Nadsat language created by Burgess provides a perspective for the study of postmodern issues; and accordingly, the themes of fragmentation, ambiguity, and deconstruction seen in the language of the story are explored. This artificial language in the novel appears to challenge traditional linguistic frameworks by using ambiguity, irony, and wordplay to challenge established meanings and disrupt communication. Correspondingly, the study examines how the Nadsat language designed by Burgess is adopted by the characters, the significance of its use, and the rationale behind it. Rather than relying on a universally known formal language, the story presents a different way of communication among the characters, which both hints and shapes their identities. Based on the analysis obtained from the employment of Nadsat, the study concludes that the characters use Nadsat language to challenge norms, question the authority, and construct their identities. This indicates the postmodernist tendencies in Burgess’s work and, more specifically, how language operates on the structural and thematic levels of the novel. Finally, in the novel, the Nadsat language is fundamental both narratively and thematically; thus, it offers readers a chance to witness the dynamics of power and limits of language.

Keywords

Nadsat , Deconstruction , Postmodernism , Anthony Burgess , A Clockwork Orange

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