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Illuminating Dystopian Realities: Youth Literature

Explore dystopian literature for youth, using satirical irony to comment on current trends and predict future problems. Learn from iconic classics and modern favorites, analyzing themes of oppressive control, surveillance, and societal critiques. Discover the characteristics of dystopian societies and how protagonists challenge the status quo. Consider the political messages, satirical elements, and thought-provoking insights presented in these immersive narratives.

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Illuminating Dystopian Realities: Youth Literature

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  1. Dystopian literature for youth Using satirical irony to comment on how current trends may lead to future problems

  2. From “Utopia” • Word was coined by Sir Thomas Moore for his book. • Utopia (1516) portrays an ideal community on a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean • A utopia, now, is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities • Dystopia relies on the idea of utopia. • Dystopian literature is now much more common that utopian literature.

  3. Defining Dystopia • A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained. • Some kinds of oppressive control • Corporate (big business) “Minority Report” • Bureaucratic (big government) “Divergent” • Technological (computers & robots) “Terminator”, “The Matrix” • Moral (religion, theocracy) “The Handmaid’s Tale” • Totalitarian (single leader whom all obey) “The Hunger Games” • Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

  4. Characteristics of a Dystopian Society • Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society. • Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. • A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. • Citizens are under constant surveillance. • Citizens fear the outside world. • Citizens live in a dehumanized state.

  5. Characteristics of a dystopian society • The natural world is banished and distrusted. • Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad. • The illusion of a perfect utopian world is broken.

  6. Dystopian Protagonists • sense that something is fundamentally wrong with their society. • question the existing social and political order. • feel trapped and struggle for change or escape. • help readers recognize negative aspects of their society through their perspective.

  7. Dystopias for youth are popular

  8. The 10 Best Dystopian Novels(according to Ranker.com) • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895) • 1984 by George Orwell (1949) • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985) • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008) • The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993) • Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954) • V For Vendetta by Alan Moore (1982-1989) • The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) http://www.ranker.com/list/the-13-best-dystopian-novels/ivana-wynn?page=1

  9. Dystopian ideas in popular media

  10. Urban, futuristic, absence of natural world, monochrome

  11. What is the political message here involving a dystopian idea

  12. Surveillance Satirical Irony

  13. Are these cartoons just funny, or do they also make a point?

  14. Barren • Black & white • Contaminated earth • Bleak landscape • Nature gone

  15. Faceless, voiceless Horror industrial AZIZ+CUCHER INTERVIEW: http://www.undo.net/it/magazines/933692055

  16. Suggestions for Approach to Reading • Know that focus on setting and world-building is often as important if not more important than character. • Most dystopian novels are exercises in asking “what if,” and authors use contemporary fears and concerns to build the societies in which their stories take place. • Notice how individuals relate to their societies, and how the authors use current issues (such as the relationship between religion and government, or advancements in genetics and biology). • Critic Thomas Moylan suggests that an experienced reader of dystopian literature (or science fiction in general) “moves through the text like a traveler in a foreign culture or a detective seeking clues to unravel the mystery at hand.”

  17. Suggestions for approach to reading • Consider the use of Diction (word choice) What words are repeated? Why? What is the emphasis • Consider Motifs (repeated images/ideas tied to themes) Examples: eyes, colors, violence, thought, brains, Ears, Names

  18. Questions to consider while reading • How does your novel reflect the problems facing the society/time period in which the novel was written? • Are the issues within the novel still prevalent today? • How does the protagonist resist his/her society?

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