What does dystopian fiction mean
According to the Oxford English Dictionary , a dystopia is "An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible. Dystopian Literature, while fiction, can also spookily echo our own past, present, and future. Dystopian Literature is one of the best genres to understand man's inhumanity to his fellow men. This guide is a nearly comprehensive list of Dystopian Literature from the 18th century up to , and is organized by decade and nationality of the author.
This list includes everything from classic dystopian novels, such as Fahrenheit , to modern dystopian novels aimed at young adults, such as The Hunger Games series. D94 G67 Our thanks are due to Kelsey White who interned with us in fall and created the first version of this help guide. Elements of her work have been carried over into this, the second, version of the Dystopian literature help guide.
S57 O77 P M69 Attack on Titan. U S Skip to content. G8 A3 S75 Dystopian literature tends to feature common, central themes that allow writers to create alternate realities while imparting deep meaning to their readers. Here are some examples of central themes in dystopian literature:. Many writers use the novel form to create dystopian literature.
The popularity of dystopian literature reflects a collective human curiosity about the future and progress of society. Here are some examples of famous dystopian novels:. Many dystopian movies are created as adaptations of dystopian literature, although there are original dystopian scripts that are made into films as well. This genre of filmmaking is popular among audiences due to the artistic and cinematic portrayal of alternate realities as well as thought-provoking content.
There are a great number of similarities between the dystopia and science fiction genres. However, there are some distinctions between them as well. The form of political dystopia, perhaps inspired by the tumult of the Second World War, began to flourish. The future world has been divided into three super-states, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia all of which are embroiled in a perpetual war. In Aldous Huxley published Brave New World Revisited , a non-fiction reassessment of his most famous novel, in which he revisited many of its scientific themes.
His central concern is the erosion of personal freedom. Brave New World Revisited is an important text in the development of post-war dystopias. From his reading of this text, Anthony Burgess produced two novels that dealt with future worlds where freedoms are challenged: The Wanting Seed and A Clockwork Orange , both published in A Clockwork Orange deals with the ideas of brainwashing and state control, as the teenage protagonist is stripped of his freedoms after being jailed for murder.
The story follows a history teacher named Tristram Foxe as he witnesses the beginnings of a social and political revolution. With reports of mass famine, people begin turning to cannibalism, which leads to chaos and war. What is dystopian fiction? What are its defining features and how can we account for its enduring popularity? This article will define dystopian fiction, explain its purpose and function, and provide important examples of it from across the storytelling spectrum.
A Utopia is considered an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. The idea of it is derived from a book by Sir Thomas More that describes an imaginary ideal society free of poverty and suffering. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia: a state in which the conditions of human life are extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror or all three. A dystopian society is characterized by human misery in the form of squalor, oppression, disease, overcrowding, environmental destruction, or war.
Below is an example of a real dystopia in present-day Syria. Other real life dystopias include the massive fire destruction in the Western United States due to climate change; and the pandemic raging through authoritarian countries such as India and Brazil. The dystopian genre imagines worlds or societies where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror, and human society is characterized by human misery, such as squalor, oppression, disease, overcrowding, environmental destruction, or war.
Common elements of dystopian fiction include societies engaged in forever wars, and characterized by extreme social and economic class divides, mass poverty, environmental devastation, anarchy, and loss of individuality. As the video details, social control is another major feature of dystopian fiction. Dystopian authors represent social control as wielded by any number of powerful entities, including:.
Totalitarianism — defined as total social control over a given population through techniques such as thought police and surveillance — is also a feature of dystopian fiction.
Dystopian fiction is usually set in the near — rather than far — future to generate urgency about real current events. Because dystopian literature and cinema is set in the future, it is by definition science fiction. However, this can also look very different than the best sci-fi movies. While not all allegories are dystopias, dystopias are also almost always allegories.
Allegories are stories that comment on and criticize contemporary events, people, policies, etc. Here's one of the most famous allegories — Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
Dystopian fiction examples include allegories about the catastrophic effects of climate change such as Wall-E , and the Roland Emmerich films The Day After Tomorrow and To sum up: the dystopian genre typically belongs to the literary and cinematic categories of science fiction, speculative fiction and allegory. Dystopian literature is very common and has been around since at least the late 19th century.