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Flatland: A Multidimensional Critique of Victorian Society and Modern Power Structures
CAI Yiyi, AN Zhujun
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2025.10.004
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
This paper explores Flatland (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott as a layered critique of Victorian social, epistemic, and gender hierarchies. Through its geometric allegory, it depicts how spatial order mirrors and enforces class and patriarchal domination. The protagonist’s dimensional awakening foregrounds the limits of perception and the paradox of enlightenment, while the novella anticipates modern concerns around surveillance, normalization, and ideological reproduction.
Flatland, Abbott, Victorian satire, epistemic hierarchy, gender oppression, spatial metaphor, dimensional allegory
CAI Yiyi & AN Zhujun, Flatland: A Multidimensional Critique of Victorian Society and Modern Power Structures. US-China Foreign Language, October 2025, Vol. 23, No. 10, 379-382 doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2025.10.004
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