Dystopia part A: AO3 context

  • Thomas Moore (1516)- Utopia No/Good Place

  • Gendler- 1984= a broader critique of totalitarianism, media and language

  • Dystopia Begins with Gulliver’s Travels by Johnathan Swift-

    • Satire- Certain trends in common society are taken to the greatest of extremes

  • HG Wells- The Time Machine- different classes were given humanity e.g. higher classes= humans, lower classes= monsters

  • Iron Heel- Jack London= an oligarchy that retains control through terror

  • Huxley’s Brave New World- Technological dystopia- biological birth is a social taboo

    • Pleasure seeking desires lead to the downfall of humanity and putting convenience over hard work e.g. birthing systems

  • Both Nazis and Communists were keen on removing social distinctions and classes

  • We by Zamyatin- a future were free will has been eroded- written immediately after Russian Revolution

  • It Can’t Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis= builds on ideas in Iron Heel

    • The ease that democracy gives way to fascism

  • Harrison Ford= Bladerunner- Phillip K Dick: Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep

  • Doctor Strange love- How Learned to love the bomb and Watchmen

    • Explore the threat of nuclear war

    • By Alan Moore- V for Vendetta- informed Anonymous costume acts of terrorism to overthrow fascist government- Governments should be afraid of their people

  • Dystopias are cautionary tales about the idea that humanity can be moulded into an ideal shape

‘Within every dystopia there’s a little utopia.’- Atwood

  • ‘Better doesn’t mean better for everyone it always means worse for some’

  • Utilitarianism- the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people

  • John Carey- ‘merely a utopia from another point of view’

Key dystopia tropes:

  • Satire- The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. E.g. A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travel

Herland- Charlotte Perkins (1915)- Matriarchal society run by and for women from asexual reproduction

The War of The Worlds- commentary of colonisation

Post-WW2 Dystopia:

  • Dystopia was greatly popularised after WWII

    • Scale of suffering and death

    • Nuclear anxiety

    • Political disillusionment

  • Gendered dystopia:

    • Made in response to rise of reproductive technology

      • The Handmaid’s Tale

      • The Children of Men