A Glimpse of Hope at the End of the Dystopian Century: The Utopian Dimension of Critical Dystopias Une lueur d'espoir à la fin du siècle dystopique : la dimension utopique des dystopies critiques (original) (raw)
Related papers
Critical Theory and Dystopia , 2022
What is the political meaning of the pervasiveness of dystopian fictions in the twenty-first century? Do these fictions have the critical energy of the utopian stories they seem to have displaced or are they compensatory forms, extolling the present as preferable to the frightening future? Critical Theory and Dystopia tracks dystopia as a genre of fiction which occupies the spaces of literature and of politics simultaneously. Using Theodor Adorno’s critique of the situation of writing in the twentieth century, this volume uses the notion of a ‘negative commitment’ to situate the potential and the limits of dystopia. Examining classic dystopias by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, McManus follows the mutation of the genre in dystopias by Margaret Atwood, J.G. Ballard and William Gibson in the 1980s. Contemporary dystopias are then read for their efforts to break with, and their inability to realise those breaks, the politics of the present. Tracing lines of continuity and of discontinuity within the genre, McManus ends by exploring the dystopias of Michel Houellebecq, Lionel Shriver and Gary Shteyngart. ISBN (Print)9781526139733
The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures, 2022
From its initial elaborations in the 1980s to the more systematic critical attention of the early 2000s and still echoing in the present, the concept of the critical dystopia 1 has emerged and been explored in relation to a shift in the structural elements noticeable in dystopian narratives-more specifically of (but not limited to) the literary type-thus providing a useful framework to work through specific issues related to poststructuralist trends and reading positions in a context of escalating social, economic, and environmental pressures. Although the term dystopia was coined in the eighteenth century, 2 its usage became widespread after the publication of the classical dystopian novels by Yevgeny Zamyatin (We, 1924), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World, 1932), Katherine Burdekin (Swastika Night, 1937), and George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949), which accompanied the gradual dwindling of the utopian ideals of modernity and progress resulting from the harshly violent and authoritarian political events (at times, reaching peaks of genocidal dictatorships and totalitarian states), the devastating wars, and the environmental disasters which punctuated the last century. After the utopian resurgence of the human rights, anti-racist, feminist, and ecological activism of the 1960s and 1970s, and following the logic of worldwide hegemonic neoliberal capitalist and increasingly transnational tendencies that have characterized the decades since then, economic, social, and ecological crises have erupted at an alarming
"Critical Review on the Idea of Dystopia". Review of European Studies; Vol. 7, No. 11; 2015: 64-76
The purpose of this review is firstly to show the formation of dystopia that finds its roots in utopia. Then, the foundation of dystopian fiction from the perspectives of such critics as Chad Walsh, Tom Moylan, Mark R. Hillegas, and Erika Gottlieb, among some others, is investigated. Finally, we briefly reveal the standing of Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and Don DeLillo, among many other dystopian writers, in depiction of dystopian societies. This study also attempts to explain how works of these three writers were revolutionary in their challenging of the new values that led to the degradation of human dignity.
The objective of the present study is to identify and analyse the common themes of dystopian fiction in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and to trace the transformation of these themes, as well as the development of new thematic realizations, in contemporary British speculative fiction. The analysis involves prominent recent authors including Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod, Adam Roberts, Charles Stross, and Chris Beckett; and through the selected works of these authors it aims to explore the recent trends in science fiction and its utopian subgenres. Besides these goals, the study aims to provide the reader with a thorough definition of dystopianism and a concise overview of the historical development of this genre and its manifestations in the works of the above-mentioned authors. As the most prominent and recurring themes in dystopian literature, both traditional and contemporary, the thesis recognizes concepts such as the manipulation through language and media, the loss of individual freedom and privacy, and the abuse of power by elites, all of which are of special importance for the present-day social thinking and politics. Structurally, the study is divided into three chapters, the first of them assuming the role of theoretical introduction, whereas the latter two represent the practical analysis. With the help of prominent critics such as Tom Moylan, L. T. Sargent, or Adam Roberts, the first chapter attempts to define the characteristics of dystopian writing and those of the related genres, descending from the general terms of “speculative fiction” and “science fiction” to the more specific ones concerning utopian literature and all of its variants, with a clear distinction between utopianism, dystopianism, and anti-utopianism. Following is a brief summary of the historical transformation of these genres, primarily throughout the twentieth century, which was especially rich in the various literary trends and styles as an answer to the frequently changing political opinions of that era. Second chapter focuses on the classical authors and the depiction of the traditional themes in their influential novels, taking into account their non-fictional works as well, which include Orwell’s famous essay on politics and language and Huxley’s critical rediscovery of his own famous novel. For the purposes of this analysis, the depicted alternative societies are observed through three different perspectives: their use of language, the attitude they perform towards social relations and sexuality, and the solutions they employ to the issue of incompatibility of communal values with individual freedom. The last chapter provides a close examination of the contemporary fiction through the works of the recent authors listed above. Even though these works are to be discussed separately, an identification of common themes among them takes place as well, and these findings are used in the following speculation about the further development of British fiction. As for the choice of the primary texts, the selection provided is meant to represent both the traditional and highly celebrated works, as well as those that have not yet received such extensive critical acclaim. Whereas Orwell and Huxley are generally acknowledged as the founding fathers of the dystopian genre, some of the recent authors will yet have to prove their worth in order to secure their rightful places on the contemporary literary scene; a process to which this thesis contributes by analysing the following works: Iain M. Banks’ The Player of Games, Ken MacLeod’s Intrusion, Adam Roberts’ New Model Army, Charles Stross’ Halting State, and Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden. These novels represent the contemporary British speculative fiction in all of its diversity, providing a spectrum of different alternative societies located all over the universe.
The Strange Case of Dystopian Fiction
Routledge Companion to Literature and Class , 2021
A chapter on dystopian fiction and class relations, in Gloria McMillan (ed.) Routledge Companion to Literature and Class. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003008354
THE THIN LINE BETWEEN HELL AND HERE: DYSTOPIAN FICTION UNDER NEOLIBERALISM
The end of the Cold War and the global triumph of neoliberalism were accompanied by the evolution of certain themes in dystopian fiction. According to some of its advocates, such as Francis Fukuyama, neoliberalism’s success signified the “end of history,” understood as ideological evolution, since the decline of communism left Western liberal democracies without any major opposition in terms of global governing and discursive practices. This thesis critically compares neoliberal rhetoric concerning invisible power, the end of history, technology, freedom of consumption and the commodification of human relationships with the ideologies represented in four neoliberal dystopian works of fiction, namely Black Mirror, Feed, The Circle, and The Fat Years. These examples create a “one-dimensional” dystopian subject who is rendered incapable of possessing the utopian imagination necessary to organize political resistance, precisely as a result of the governance and discourse of neoliberalism.
Influences on the 21st century English-written dystopian literature
2018
The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyze and explain major influences on the development of dystopian literature of the 21st century written in English. Those influences are described and illustrated on selected literary works, specifically on Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood, Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins, Matched (2010) by Ally Condie, and The Bone Season (2013) by Samantha Shannon. The theoretical part aims to explain the term dystopia, to define dystopia as a genre, and to describe its history. This part also deals with the influences on the development of dystopia, focused especially on the 20 century, and with the summaries of the books selected for the use in the practical part. The practical part focuses on the major influences on the development of dystopian literature of the 21 century written in English. Those are influences relating to methods of social control, scientific and technological advancements...
ANATOMISING DYSTOPIA (2001-06, 12,000 words)
A Little Tractate On Dystopia 2001 is a sequence of "theses," many of which have one or more appended "glosses," grouped into sections. The section "Premises" (theses 1-3) leads to "A/ Epistemology and Utopia" (theses 4-13), "B/ Politics and Dystopia" (theses 14-24), and "C/ Ausklang on Agents: Who Are We? Where Are We Going To?" (theses 25-30). Section A deals with defining, and justifying the definitions of, utopia as either eutopia or dystopia and anti-utopia. It sets up a schematized but historical typology, with many examples. These (sub-)genres are seen as different formal inversions of salient sociopolitical aspects of the writer's world, which have as purpose the reader's axiological reorientation. At its end, a supplementary toolkit is proposed consisting of the utopian locus, horizon and orientation, the combinatorics of which gives a second typology of: open-ended or dynamic utopia, closed or static utopia, heterotopia, and abstract or non-narrative utopia/nism. Section B is subdivided into "B1: Introductory"; "B2: Disneyfication as Dystopia," which discusses Disneyland as a privileged way of organizing affective investment into commodifying which reduces the mind to infantilism; "B3: Fallible Eu/Dystopia," new subgenres of Science Fiction in the last 40 years. Section C talks about the agency of intellectuals in dystopian social horizons. Its final thesis concludes that all variants of dystopias and eutopias sketched above pivot on collective self-management enabling and guaranteeing personal freedom. The essay concludes with a bibliography and a historical Table of Utopian Features ranging through 7 stages from More through Wells to Disneyland. The Prefatory Reflections on Dystopia 2006 are a retrospect about some aspects of the above Tractate. Part 1 asks "Why talk about dystopia today, here?" and proposes both some first answers and backtracking to Zamyatin's ancestral masterpiece We for further illumination. This is done in part 2 by positing this text was written inside the centralized State Leviathan while we are today in a dominantly corporative capitalist Leviathan, which uses the State when necessary for internal and external enforcement. Part 3 asks why talk about all such matters under the guise of dystopia rather than in essays or pamphlets. It argues that fiction is not only historically important but has superior cognitive potentialities in its "thick" exploration of possible worlds and their interaction with narrative agents. It also justifies the term dystopia. Part 4 gives suggestions about the proper use of utopia/nism, which is an epistemological procedure for better understanding, not an ontological twin of an existing State or society to be literally instaurated. A further bibliography accompanies these Reflections.