doi:10.18503/2658-3186-2025-9-1-47-52
Abstract. The article analyzes the novel by American science fiction writer Philip Kindred Dick "The Man in the High Castle" (1962) through the prism of political and metaphysical issues. Despite the fact that Dick's creative legacy attracts close attention of literary critics and a wide range of readers, it remains relatively under- studied and proves the relevance of this research. In the novel “The Man in the High Castle”, Dick creates an alternate reality where Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II. The writer does not confine himself to reconstructing political history and asks philosophical questions about the essence of reality, fate and human freedom. The purpose of the study is to analyze the functioning of the political and metaphysical components in the poetry of F. Dick's novel “The Man in the High Castle” and the author of the article applied historical, literary and structural methods allowing to examine the poetics of the novel in the frame of the chosen problem. The author comes to the conclusion that the writer's focus on the study of a set of political and philosophical problems leads to numerous critical comparisons with the ideas of prominent thinkers; politics permeates the lives of F. Dick 's characters, who facing the pressure of totalitarian regimes, are forced to accept the horrors as inevitable; political reality penetrates into the very fabric of daily life, influencing the moral and existential decisions of the novel's characters. The interaction between political and metaphysical themes is revealed through philosophical motifs inherent in Dick's work, such as the ideas of Neoplatonists, Gnostics and Existentialists. The novel “The Man in the High Castle” is an example of a work in which the political and philosophical ideas are organically intertwined, creating the poetics of the novel.
Keywords: American fantasy novel, Philip K. Dick, “The Man in the High Castle”, depiction of Nazism in fantasy literature, alternative history, nature of reality, political metaphysical in poetics
Information about the author
Vikhrova K. A. – Senior Lecturer at the Department of Humanities and Engineering Disciplines, St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.
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For citation: Vikhrova K. A. Politics and metaphysics in Philip K. Dick's novel “The Man in the High Castle”, Gumanitarno-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya = Humanitarian and pedagogical Research, 2025, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 47–52. (In Russ.), doi:10.18503/2658-3186-2025-9-1-47-52.