20th Century Literature
Dystopian Literature
👉What is Dystopian Fiction?
If we think about Dystopian Literature it explores the darkest facets of the human mind and human nature. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a dystopia is
"An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible."
The easiest way to think about Dystopian Literature and dystopias is to consider that a dystopia is often the result of a society's arranging its government and laws around good qualities for a perfect society, such as order, equality, and obedience, and taking those qualities to the absolute extreme. 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.
Dystopian fiction worlds — whether in novels, films, comic books/graphic novels, or video games — tend to contain many of the same narrative features. 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.
👉History of dystopian fiction
The history of dystopian literature can be traced back to reaction to the French Revolution of 1789, and the prospect that mob rule would produce dictatorship. Until the late 20th century it was usually anti-collectivist. Dystopian fiction emerged as a response to utopian fiction.
The beginning of technological dystopian fiction can be traced back to E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops". Forster is widely accepted as a 'pioneer of dystopian literature.' M Keith Booker states that "The Machine Stops", We and Brave New World are "the great defining texts of the genre of dystopian fiction, both in vividness of their engagement with real-world social and political issues, and in the scope of their critique of the societies on which they focus."
Another important figure in dystopian literature is H.G. Wells, whose work The Time Machine is also widely seen as a prototype of dystopian literature. Post World War II, even more dystopian fiction was produced. These works of fiction were interwoven with political commentary: the end of World War II brought about fears of an impending Third World War and a consequent apocalypse.
Modern dystopian fiction draws not only on topics such as totalitarian governments and anarchism, but also pollution, global warming, climate change, health, the economy and technology. Modern dystopian themes are common in the young adult genre of literature.
👉Characteristic of Dystopian Literature:
1.Government Control:
Government plays a big role in dystopian literature. Generally, there is either no government or an oppressive ruling body.
Examples:
In George Orwell’s 1984, the world is under complete government control. The fictional dictator Big Brother enforces omnipresent surveillance over the people living in the three inter-continental superstates remaining after a world war.
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin is a 1985 science-fiction novel that follows the Kesh community of people in a post-apocalyptic world. The Kesh repudiate a government system and are self-organized.
The Hunger Games, a young adult trilogy by Suzanne Collins beginning in 2008, takes place in the fictional world Panem, a future nation on the ruins of North America. Panem’s totalitarian government called The Capitol holds most of the country’s wealth and controls the citizens. Each year, children from Panem’s 12 districts are selected to participate in a televised death match called the Hunger Games.
2.Technological Control:
Examples:
Advanced science and technology in dystopian works go beyond tools for improving everyday life—technology is often depicted as a controlling, omnipresent force and is often used as a fear-mongering tactic.
Examples:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, written in 1932, explores the danger of technology. The ruling World State uses powerful conditioning technologies to control reproduction and citizens’ actions.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick takes place in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco after a nuclear global war in 1992. This 1968 novel was the basis for the film The Blade Runner and explores the dangers of advanced technology. There are android robots indistinguishable from humans, and mass extinction has led to artificial animals.
Feed by M.T. Anderson is a young adult dystopian novel written in 2002 about a near-future America controlled by Feednet, a computer network that is implanted into the brains of 73% of American citizens.
3.Environment Disaster:
Dystopian novels are often set in places that are inhabitable, have been destroyed, or are preparing for destruction.
Examples:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy, written in 2006, is a post-apocalyptic story about a father and son venturing across the ruins of America after an extinction event.
The Maze Runner is a series by James Dashner chronicling the events of how the dystopian world had been destroyed by massive solar flares and coronal mass ejection. In the first book of the series, a group of teenage boys are stuck in an imaginary place called The Glade and have to find their way of out its ever-changing maze.
4.Survival:
The oppressive powers and destruction in dystopian worlds often leave the inhabitants to fend for themselves.
Examples:
The Running Man was written by Stephen King and first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. Taking place in 2025, the novel is about an impoverished man living under an oppressive government who competes on a life-threatening game show in order to earn money to care for his family.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, written in 1954, is about a group of schoolboys who are abandoned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a fictional atomic war. Conflicts emerge between the boys as they struggle to build a civilization and fight for survival.
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is set in an underground world called Ember. The isolated city was constructed to thwart an impending disaster and follows a group of teenagers working to find their way out.
5.Loss of Individualism:
How should the needs of society as a whole compare to individual needs? Many dystopian futures depict the dangers of conformity.
Examples:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, written in 1953, follows a fireman whose job is to burn books. Because of the censorship of books, this future society has increased interest in technology and entertainment—and an inability to think freely and creatively.
The Giver by Lois Lowry is a 1993 young adult novel about a society that has no pain because the community has all been converted to “Sameness.” The story follows a 12-year-old boy who is selected to be the society’s Receiver of Memory and will store the memories of the community before “Sameness” was enacted.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, written in 1920, follows a spacecraft engineer living in the future nation called One State. The citizens of One State wear uniforms and are referred to by number.
👉10 Devastating Dystopias
The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy
The Giver (1993), by Lois Lowry
The Children of Men (1992), by P.D. James
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
A Clockwork Orange (1962), by Anthony Burgess
Atlas Shrugged (1957), by Ayn Rand
Brave New World (1932), by Aldous Huxley
My (1920; We), by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Iron Heel (1907), by Jack London
The Time Machine (1895), by H.G. Wells
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