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Dystopian Fiction

Dystopian Fiction. By Katy M. Taylor M. Genre.

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Dystopian Fiction

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  1. Dystopian Fiction By Katy M. Taylor M.

  2. Genre • Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control.  Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.  *Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions. • Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society. • Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. • A figurehead or concept is worshipped or despised by the citizens of the society. • Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. • Citizens have a fear of the outside world. • The natural world is banished and distrusted. • Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.

  3. Samples “It was Mother, of course, who had forbidden it—his studies were more important than “parades,” as she called them. She didn’t understand that military exercises had more to teach him than musty old tutors and their books. One day soon Alek might be piloting one of those machines. War was coming, after all. Everyone said so. The last tin cavalry unit had just crashed into the French lines when the soft sound came from the hallway again: jingling, like a ring of keys. Alek turned, peering at the gap beneath his bed chamber’s double doors. Shadows shifted along the silver of moonlight, and he heard the hiss of whispers. Someone was right outside. Silent in bare feet, he swiftly crossed the cold marble floor, sliding into the bed just as the door creaked open. Alek narrowed his eyes to a slit, wondering which of the servants was checking on him.” --Scott Westerfield, Leviathan

  4. Samples Continued “Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces. But today the black cinder streets are empty. Shutters on the squat gray houses are closed. The reaping isn’t until two. May as well sleep. If you can. Our house is almost at the edge of the Seam. I only have to pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods, in fact inclosing all of District 12, id s high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In theory, it’s supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods– packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears– that used to threaten our streets. But since we’re lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it’s usually safe to touch. Even so, I always take a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live. Right now, it’s silent as a stone.” -- Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

  5. Tips Protagonist General Set in the future Oppressive/corrupt government/authority figure World is either destroyed by humans or natural occurrence to make human living hard Set as an illusion of an Utopian society • often feels trapped and is struggling to escape. • questions the existing social and political systems. • believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives. • helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her perspective.

  6. History Dystopian fiction was first explored after the introduction of the Utopian society. Dystopia and Utopia are complete opposites. And usually if you have a Utopia, there is a Dystopia to balance. A Utopia can also be built because of a Dystopian world or can be the cause of a Dystopian world. The first idea of a Utopia that was published was in 380 B.C. in Plato’s Republic. In 1516 Thomas More made the term “utopia” popular with his book Utopia. The concept of a Dystopian Society wasn’t fully understood until Glenn Negley and J. Max Patrick published Quest for Utopia in 1952.

  7. History Continued The first works to be classified as Dystopian: • The Begum’s Fortune by Jules Verns 1879 • The Republic of the Future by Anna Bowman Dodd 1887 • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells 1895 • The Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells 1899 • The Iron Heel by Jack London 1908 • The World Set Free by H.G. Wells 1914 • We by Yevgeny Zamiatian 1921 • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 1932 • Swastika Night by Kathrine Burdekin 1937 • Anthem By Ayn Rand 1938 • Kallocain by Karin Boye 1940 • 1984 by Gorge Orwell • Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut 1952 *there are more examples but that would be too long of a list.

  8. Activity • Electricity no longer works. • Cloned dinosaurs • Aliens take over and keep us as pets. • Memories are stored online and are downloaded as needed; yours get mixed up and you receive a secret government plan. They come after you. • Ozone is gone. Sunlight is deadly. • Certain livestock or crops don’t exist anymore. The world starts to starve.

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