Fantasy, a means to propagate ideologies: A foucauldian reading of Albee’s the zoo story

Abstract

Fantasy is a genre in literature which embodies wishes and desires of human beings. Due to such features, it has been turned into a means by which different discourses utilize fantasy as a way to propagate their ideologies. This happens because fantasy is capable of providing each discourse with a concrete image of their promises to their subjects. The aim of this essay is to delve into Albee’s The Zoo Story, using a Foucauldian reading, to show that American dream as a discourse is not the only existing discourse within the society of America, but there are other marginalized voices in the form of fantasies in which power circulates. Peter, the mouthpiece of American dominant discourse, has a fantasy created by that discourse which is in stark contrast to that of Jerry, the marginalized discourse existing along with the dominant one, which threatens the dominant discourse and struggles to reach the peak in the power structure.