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1
Hensley, Martin. "The Green World of Dystopian Fiction." TopSCHOLAR®, 2006. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/276.
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Northrop Frye was the first theorist to develop the green world archetype; Frye used the term to refer to a recurring motif in Shakespearean comedy. In several of Shakespeare's comedies, the protagonists leave the civilized world and venture into the green world, or nature, to escape from the irrational law of society, which is the case in such comedies as As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elements of the green world can also be found in Shakespearean tragedy, where the natural retreat serves as a temporary escape for the protagonists. Such a green world exists in three of the most well known examples of dystopian fiction: George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. In these three novels, the protagonists take flight from the repressive dystopia and journey into nature. In the green world, the protagonists attain individual freedom and identity and experience emotions, passions, beauty, the past, and the power of language. Each of these elements, which are associated with the green world, stand in opposition to the dystopian society's doctrine. The green world, then, becomes an escape, a place where the protagonists can temporarily live a free life away from the tyrannical powers of the dystopic society. The dystopian green world experience follows a pattern of flight, immersion, and departure. In the first segment, the protagonists flee from the oppressive society and into nature; in the second, they immerse themselves within the green world where they experience new sensations, emotions, and gain new insights and understanding; in the third, the protagonists depart the green world and return to the civilized world in order to confront it with the knowledge they have gained while immersed in the green world. This pattern can also be viewed as a symbolic cycle that moves from death to rebirth to death. The first death is the death-like stasis of the dystopia and of the protagonist, who is just a part of the whole and not truly an individual. The symbolic rebirth conies when the protagonists depart the green world as individuals with new know ledge and experiences. Lastly, the second symbolic, or sometimes literal death, comes when the protagonists confront the dystopia with their new knowledge, have that knowledge challenged by an agent of the dystopia, usually in the form of a trial, and, finally, are symbolically or literally destroyed by the dystopian agent.
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Moore, Belinda S. "Young adult dystopian fiction in the postnatural age." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101535/1/Belinda_Moore_Thesis.pdf.
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This creative works thesis comprises an exegesis and a novel. Both explore the ways that a postnatural perspective can shape the reading and writing of young adult dystopian fiction. Approaching literature from a postnatural perspective can highlight a connection between shifts in a novel's key terms and the development of the protagonist towards understanding their world as an interconnected ecosystem. Through its grounding in ecocriticism and children's literature criticism, this research investigates the contributions a postnatural perspective offers young adult dystopian fiction generally, and specifically, in the development of the novel When the Cloud Hit the Kellys.
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Welstead, Adam. "Dystopia and the divided kingdom : twenty-first century British dystopian fiction and the politics of dissensus." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/17104.
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This doctoral thesis examines the ways in which contemporary writers have adopted the critical dystopian mode in order to radically deconstruct the socio-political conditions that preclude equality, inclusion and collective political appearance in twenty-first century Britain. The thesis performs theoretically-informed close readings of contemporary novels from authors J.G. Ballard, Maggie Gee, Sarah Hall and Rupert Thomson in its analysis, and argues that the speculative visions of Kingdom Come (2006), The Flood (2004), The Carhullan Army (2007) and Divided Kingdom (2005) are engaged with a wave of contemporary dystopian writing in which the destructive and divisive forms of consensus that are to be found within Britain's contemporary socio-political moment are identified and challenged. The thesis proposes that, in their politically-engaged extrapolations, contemporary British writers are engaged with specifically dystopian expressions of dissensus. Reflecting key theoretical and political nuances found in Jacques Rancière's concept of 'dissensus', I argue that the novels illustrate dissensual interventions within the imagined political space of British societies in which inequalities, oppressions and exclusions are endemic - often proceeding to present modest, 'minor' utopian arguments for more equal, heterogeneous and democratic possibilities in the process. Contributing new, theoretically-inflected analysis of key speculative fictions from twenty-first century British writers, and locating their critiques within the literary, socio-political and theoretical contexts they are meaningfully engaged with, the thesis ultimately argues that in interrogating and reimagining the socio-political spaces of twenty-first century Britain, contemporary writers of dystopian fiction demonstrate literature working in its most dissensual, political and transformative mode.
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Stock, Adam. "Mid twentieth-century dystopian fiction and political thought." Thesis, Durham University, 2011. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3465/.
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This thesis examines political and social thought in dystopian fiction of the mid-twentieth century. It focuses on works by four authors: Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924), Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and John Wyndham’s postwar novels (especially The Day of the Triffids (1951), The Kraken Wakes (1953) and The Chrysalids (1955)). The central concern of this thesis is how political and social ideas are developed within a literary mode which evolved as response to both literary concerns and political ideas, including on the one hand literary utopias, science fiction, satire, and literary modernism; and on the other hand modernity, social Darwinism, apocalypse, war, and changes in gender roles in the broader culture. It is argued that the narrative structures of these novels are crucial in enabling them to perform such critical tasks. These texts use fictionality to enact self-reflexive critiques of the disasters of their age that both acknowledge their own emergence from the post-Enlightenment tradition in the history of political ideas, and criticise the failings of this very tradition of which they are part. The work of a variety of critical theorists, including Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Hannah Arendt and Raymond Williams inform this analysis. This thesis aims to demonstrate how comparative readings of critical theory and literature can reveal their mutually interactive significance as cultural reactions to historical events. Dystopian fictions of the mid-twentieth century are both important documents in cultural history, and valuable literary examples of the development and diffusion of a plurality of modernisms within popular fiction.
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Bakker, Barbara. "Arabic dystopias in the 21st century : A study on 21st century Arabic dystopian fiction through the analysis of four works of Arabic dystopian narrative." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Arabiska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-27968.
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Dystopian fiction as intended in the Western literary tradition is a 20 th century phenomenon on the Arabic literary scene. This relatively new genre has been experiencing an uplift since the beginning of the 21st century and many works that have been defined dystopias have been published and translated into English in the last 10 – 15 years. In order to find out their main features, Claeys’s categorization of literary dystopias is applied and a thematic analysis is carried out on four Arabic dystopian works of narrative, written by authors from different parts of the Arabic world. The analysis shows that 21st century Arabic dystopias are political dystopias, with totalitarianism as their main variation. Rather than on society, their focus is on the individual, and more specifically on personal freedom. The totalitarian constraints are mainly caused by religious fundamentalism and bureaucratic procedures. Surveillance and control over population are implemented by means of religious precepts and bureaucratic constructions, together with, in some instances, control over language and technological devices. Political totalitarianism regardless of a specific political ideology is identified as main theme. The thesis suggests that a Western-based classification framework is only partially suitable for Arabic dystopian fiction of the 21st century and that further research, including but not limited to a specific classification theory for Arabic dystopian fiction, is necessary to properly investigate this new literary trend in Arabic literature.
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Bakker, Barbara. "Arabic dystopias in the 21st century : A study on 21st century Arabic dystopian fictionthrough the analysis of four works of Arabic dystopian narrative." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Arabiska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-28495.
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Dystopian fiction as intended in the Western literary tradition is a 20 th century phenomenon on the Arabic literary scene. This relatively new genre has been experiencing an uplift since the beginning of the 21 st century and many works that have been defined dystopias have been published and translated into English in the last 10 – 15 years. In order to find out their main features, Claeys’s categorization of literary dystopias is applied and a thematic analysis is carried out on four Arabic dystopian works of narrative, written by authors from different parts of the Arabic world. The analysis shows that 21 st century Arabic dystopias are political dystopias, with totalitarianism as their main variation. Rather than on society, their focus is on the individual, and more specifically on personal freedom. The totalitarian constraints are mainly caused by religious fundamentalism and bureaucratic procedures. Surveillance and control over population are implemented by means of religious precepts and bureaucratic constructions, together with, in some instances, control over language and technological devices. Political totalitarianism regardless of a specific political ideology is identified as main theme. The thesis suggests that a Western-based classification framework is only partially suitable for Arabic dystopian fiction of the 21 st century and that further research, including but not limited to a specific classification theory for Arabic dystopian fiction, is necessary to properly investigate this new literary trend in Arabic literature.
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Ventrucci, Virginia. "Translating and Analyzing Contemporary Italian Dystopian Fiction: Leonardo Patrignani's "Tu Non Esisti"." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017.
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As the English-speaking book market is difficult to penetrate for authors who are not native speakers of English, it is important to analyze how writers of different languages can produce notable works. This dissertation sets to translate, analyze, and assess the literary value of "Tu Non Esisti", a short story written by Italian author Leonardo Patrignani, as an example of contemporary Italian dystopian fiction that could be successful abroad.
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Bouet, Elsa Dominique. "Hitting the wall : dystopian metaphors of ideology in science fiction." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9476.
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This thesis explores the depictions of the relationship between utopia and ideology by looking at metaphors of the wall in of utopian and dystopian science fiction, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic. The wall is an image symbolising the ambiguity between ideology and utopia: the wall could be perceived to be the barrier protecting utopia while it is in fact the symbol for ideological restrictions and containment which are generating dystopia. The thesis looks at how these novels engage with the theme of the wall: it is used as an image altering history, constricting space and as a linguistic barrier. The characters' presence in and experience of the worlds is restricted by the ideological walls, and an alternate reality is created. The thesis looks at how the novels create such alternate, ideological realities and how the wall becomes the entity altering time, history, space and language. This alternate reality is used as an image of stability, but this takes on negative connotations: it becomes a constrictive force, embodying Fredric Jameson's idea that science fiction creates images of “world reduction”, caging the characters' desires, disabling the utopian impulse. The thesis therefore instigates the possibility of utopia: the wall negates all possibility of change and denies the hopes of the utopian impulse; however the characters' desire to regain humanity by destroying the ideological walls offers hope and opens up utopia, thus concluding that utopia is change and progress.
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MacNeill, Gordon. "Moulding Minds : Media, Mass Manipulation and Subjectivity in Dystopian Science Fiction." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.507728.
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NEWMAN, CHINA RAE. "GENDER PERFORMANCE IN DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613347.
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This work analyzes the use and portrayal of gender in Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1908), George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), and Stephanie Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008), four dystopian works written over a period of 100 years. It questions the reasoning behind the use of gender within each of the texts and looks at the changes in the use and presentation of gendered characters in each of the novels, considering the purpose of each text and the possible reasoning behind gendered portrayals of the characters in each story. Though a chronological analysis of these texts reveals a change from the portrayal of femininity as a singular good to a mindless weakness to a necessary balancing force, feminine characters remain subordinate to and weaker than masculine characters, even as a female protagonist takes the stage in the final novel. Finally, the work questions whether the conventions of the dystopian genre preclude the existence of a feminine dystopian hero or if the reason she has not yet been written is based on a cultural bias towards strong masculinity in main characters of any gender rather than the norms of the dystopian genre.
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Goodman, Martin. "Ectopia: The Family Bible and the play of history in Dystopian Fiction." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.485247.
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Reber, Lauren Lewis. "Negotiating Hope and Honesty: A Rhetorical Criticism of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2005. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/284.
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Young adult dystopian fictions follow the patterns established by the classic adult dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but not completely. Young adult dystopias tend to end happily, a departure from the nightmarish ends of Winston Smith and John Savage. Young adult authors resist hopelessness, even if the fictional world demands it.
Using a rhetorical approach established by Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction and The Company We Keep, this thesis traces the reasons for the inclusion of hope and the strategies by which hope is created and maintained. Booth's rhetorical approach recognizes that a narrative is a relational act. At issue in this study is the consideration of what follows from viewing a narrative as a dynamic exchange between text, author and reader. Through a focus on rhetoric as identification, the responsibilities of both the author and the reader to a text are identified and discussed.
Three young adult novels, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, The Giver by Lois Lowry and Feed by M.T. Anderson will be analyzed as case studies. Together the analysis of these novels reveals that storytelling is an act of forging identifications and forming alliances. The reader becomes more than just a spectator of the author's rhetoric; the reader is a fully involved member of the interpretive and evaluative process.
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Robinson, lain. "The Buyer and A Study of the Dystopian Genre in Recent British Fiction." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.502144.
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The novel, The Buyer, uses the idea of the corporate environment as a dystopia of sorts for an exploration of identity, power, and meaning -who controls them and where they lie- in its depiction of the narrator's struggle to resolve these issues. My interest in the hyperreality surrounding the events of 9-11, my disquiet at the political and military reactions to those events and to the growing catastrophe in our climate, have also informed the writing of The Buyer. Set in a corporation that functions like a totalitarian state, the novel also imagines a wider society in which security measures used to combat terrorism have been taken to an extreme, and in which more and more state-run institutions have been ceded to the private sector, set against a backdrop of sudden climate change. The critical thesis, A Study ofthe Dystopian Genre in Recent British Fict{on, examines recent definitions of dystopia as a genre and applies them to a number of recent novels including my own. If genres are historically fluid cultural institutions in which novels participate rather than belong then the circumstances that give rise to their participation is of importance. Authors of dystopian literature use defamiliarised settings to create distorted versions of the societies in which they write allowing readers to perceive their current political or social circumstances anew. The challenges faced by the dystopian novelist trying to imagine settings outside the collapsing time-space horizons of postmodernity is analyzed along with the techniques adopted to bypass these problems. The extent to which The Buyer and the other texts discussed participate in the dystopian genre is interrogated as well as the possibility that recent dystopian fiction responds to new global uncertainties.
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Selzer, Dominik. "Critical Thinkers through The Hunger Games : Working with Dystopian Fiction in the EFL Classroom." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-65374.
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This essay gives examples of possible ways to inspire young adults to become politically more aware and active using dystopian fiction in the EFL classroom. First, an overview of the dystopian genre and different ways of using it in the EFL classroom to improve critical thinking skills will be given. Subsequently, different scenes from The Hunger Games will be analyzed to show how young adults can be inspired to be more aware of social and environmental justice and to act. Finally, it is discussed why literary material in a classroom must relate to a student’s personal life and why the relevance must be explained to a student to raise their interest. As a conclusion, it is claimed that it cannot be expected that all students care for the world, but showing them why they should and how they could do it is a first step.
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Elhousny, Nadja. ""I believe it." : En luthersk-teologisk analys av Veronica Roths Divergent-trilogi." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-255544.
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The aim of this essay is to examine what happens when Veronica Roths Divergent-trilogy is read with a lutheran theological pre-understanding. Using reader-response theory and lutheran theology written for and in a post-modern context, three lutheran figures of thought are presented as one way of understanding the trilogy. The conclusion is that it is possible to reveal lutheran ideas concerning justification, guilt, forgiveness, mercy and self-sacrificing love in the Divergent-story.Denna uppsats undersöker Veronica Roths Divergent-trilogi ur ett luthersk-teologiskt perspektiv. Metoden som används är en text- och läsarcentrerad metod. Med hjälp av post-modern luthertolkning till största delen hämtad från projektet Luthersk teologi och etik - i ett efterkristet samhälle så byggs tre tankefigurer upp; människan och det onda, människan och det goda samt människan och vägen till frihet. Dessa tankefigurer läggs som ett raster över trilogin. Resultatet av denna process visar att det i berättelsen är möjligt att synliggöra lutherska tankefigurer rörande rättfärdiggörelse, skuld, en självutgivande kärlek, förlåtelse och nåd.
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Byrnes, Claire D. "Blood on her hands: A practice-led approach to exploring violent heroines in dystopian fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121424/2/Claire_Byrnes_Thesis.pdf.
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This creative practice-led research project investigates the creation of violent female protagonists in dystopian fiction in order to discover what these type of characters reveal about society's ideas of gender. The outcome of the project is research product or artefact, a work of fiction titled 'Swan Song'. The work is deliberately poetic in presentation to encourage readers to consider the complexity of female gender construction. The project accomplishes this by incorporating aspects of evocative practice research, action research, and fiction in the research methods.
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Miotto, Isabel <1985>. "I'm more than a piece in their Games Contemporary American Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/2348.
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Davis, Megan S. "A R(EVOLUTION) OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: YOUNG-ADULT DYSTOPIAN FICTION AS A VEHICLE FOR ECOCRITICAL AWARENESS." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/787.
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Prominent within various scientific journals, news media outlets, and online publications are conversations surrounding what is dubbed “climate anxiety.” This wide-stemmed social unrest is caused, in large part, by the unrelenting, consistent data from the scientific community reporting rising sea levels, species extinction, and “record-breaking” heatwaves as well as an increasing average of global temperatures, that seem to top the next every year for the past decade. However, an underlying thread to these reports remains largely consistent. Unless serious regard is given to our natural surroundings and how we have come to interact within it, regions of the Earth considered desirable for human life will likely become uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable to humans and other species. When addressed so simply and plainly, it seems that the response to such life-altering implications ought to be simple: do whatever it takes to ensure that a diversity of life, including that of humankind, can continue on the planet Earth. Voices of the scientific community have decreed that a driving force behind the lackadaisical approach to deterring such dire climatological circumstances, is the inability to grasp the immense scope of climate change issues.
This thesis, then, aims at proposing a directive to correct this problematic mentality, and a specific generation to combat this nature. Using the lens of ecocriticism, the study of literature and the environment, combined with cutting-edge theoretical findings in the field, I will focus on the literary portrayal of climate change within young-adult dystopian fiction.
While regarding the scholarship on the recent increase of YA fiction that takes a critical approach to human ethics and the portrayal of the demise of the natural environment in those texts, I will examine how this trend responds to my ideas of young-adult fiction functioning within Ecocriticism. Moreover, you will see a pattern charting how literature can revolutionize and evolve the mind frame of human ethics on a planetary scale, starting with the young adult readers. Further, I will highlight how these ideologies could and ought to be incorporated into a composition classroom. Composition already has a strong history of grounding itself in the notion of identity, and how contingent factors (social, political, economic, ecological, etc.) are integrated into the construction of that identity. This thesis poses that if we can introduce a sense of how those factors affect our ability to act in the natural world and potential consequences of these actions by way of pop culture outlets like YA Climate Fiction, readers can begin to re-shape our identities and actions, individually and collectively, towards Ecocritical ethics and awareness.
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McGinney, William Lawrence. "The Sounds of the Dystopian Future: Music for Science Fiction Films of the New Hollywood Era, 1966-1976." Thesis, connect to online resource, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9839.
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Zajac, Ronald J. (Ronald John). "The Dystopian city in British and US science fiction, 1960-1975 : urban chronotopes as models of historical closure." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61046.
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In much dystopian SF, the city models a society which represses the protagonist's sense of historical time, replacing it with a sense of "private" time affecting isolated individuals. This phenomenon appears in dystopian SF novels of 1960-75--including Thomas M. Disch's 334, John Brunner's The Jagged Orbit, Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip, J. G. Ballard's High-Rise, and Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren--as well as some precursors--including Wells, Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. In these novels the cities also reveal in their chronotopic arrangement the degree to which revolutionary forces can oppose the dystopian order. While the earlier dystopias see revolution crushed by despotic state power, those of 1960-75 see it thwarted by the dehumanizing effects of capitalism. The period from 1960-75 ends in resignation to an existence in which individual action can no longer effect political change, at best tempered by irony (Disch, Delany).
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Viteri, Marquez Elisa Andrea. "Literary masculinities in contemporary Egyptian dystopian fiction : Local, regional and global masculinities as social criticism in Utopia and The Queue." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för Asien-, Mellanöstern- och Turkietstudier, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-184262.
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In the aftermath the 25th January Revolution of 2011, two Egyptian dystopian novels stand out as particularly relevant: Utopia (2008) by Ahmed Khaled Towfik, and The Queue (2013), by Basma Abdel Aziz. Due to the absence of studies that pay attention to how gender relations are portrayed in Arabic dystopian novels, this study focuses on the literary representation of men and masculinities in Utopia and The Queue. This thesis uses narratology and content analysis in order to show that, although patterns of local masculinities are different in both novels, regional and global models of masculinity clearly point out men as controlling, violent and hypersexual, which is supported by multiple institutions, such as the state, media, and the religious establishment. The inclusion of relevant ethnological studies of masculinities in Egypt confirms that the social criticism of the novels include gender relations, and refers to the time in which the novels were written. This study points out the need for recognizing Arabic dystopian fiction as a valuable instrument that carries meaningful and intricate social criticism, as well as the need for the inclusion of gender as a category of literary analysis.
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Lueckel, Wolfgang. "Atomic Apocalypse - 'Nuclear Fiction' in German Literature and Culture." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1281459381.
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Baker, Kaline Elizabeth. "Media as a social institution : the power dynamics of media in the young adult dystopian fiction of M.T. Anderson and Suzanne Collins." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54463.
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Using a wide array of research on media and youth, combined with theories about dystopian literature, this thesis examines the portrayal of media in the young adult novels Feed, by M.T. Anderson, and the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. This research study is a part of the larger critical discussion about how adult anxieties concerning media use by youth manifest themselves in the fiction written for adolescents by adult authors. By examining the concepts of surveillance, discipline, punishment, and resistance through the critical lens of Michel Foucault’s theories in his work Discipline and Punish, as well as the work of Roberta Trites in Disturbing the Universe, this study finds that media is classified as a social institution in Anderson’s and Collins’ young adult dystopian narratives. In these novels, the dystopian regimes utilize media to maintain social order and behavior. This study explores how the young adult protagonists are disempowered by media, learn how media as a social force controls their lives, and gain agency through a reversal of media use to reinforce their personal power and independence.Arts, Faculty of
Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of
Graduate
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Charléz, Sara. ""A Mere Dream Dreamed in a Bad Time" : A Marxist Reading of Utopian and Dystopian Elements in Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-156031.
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In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Always Coming Home, utopian and dystopian elements interact according to patterns inspired by anarchism and Taoism to criticise material excesses and oppressive social structures under capitalism. Via discussions of gender, state power, and forms of social (re)production, this Marxist reading proposes that the novel’s separation of utopia from dystopia hinges on the absence or presence of a state. The reading also suggests that the novel’s utopia is by its own admission a “mere dream” with limited relevance to anti-capitalist politics, and employs the novel’s own term “handmind” to show that the aesthetic and philosophical dimensions of its anti-capitalist sentiments encourage a reconsideration of utopia, to be viewed not as a fixed future product – a good-place – but as a constant process of becoming – a no-place.
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Duval, Laura K. "The Marked." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2019. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2690.
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This paper will detail the making of The Marked, exploring from concept to completion, with special focus on creating a dystopian, science fiction, film with an element of fantasy. I will begin by examining my inspirations. Next, I will explore preproduction, examining screenwriting, casting, location scouting, production, and preparation. Part three will look at production, focusing on directing, production design, cinematography, and on-set operations. Part four will examine post production, including, editing, color correction, sound design, and music. Each element of production will be evaluated to determine if they helped successfully create a believable, dystopian, fantasy story for the viewer. I will also be examining whether the themes I originally sought to explore come across in the film.
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Uhlenbruch, Frauke. "The Nowhere Bible : the Biblical passage Numbers 13 as a case study of Utopian and Dystopian readings by diachronic audiences." Thesis, University of Derby, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10545/315827.
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Applying utopian theory to the Bible reveals a number of issues surrounding the biblical text within academic disciplines such as biblical studies, which study the Bible as an ancient cultural artefact, and among religious readers of the Bible. The biblical passage Numbers 13 was chosen as a case study of a utopian reading of the image of the Promised Land to demonstrate the Bible’s multifaceted potential by externalising the presupposition brought to the text. The underlying method is derived from an ideal type procedure, appropriated from Weber. Instead of comparing phenomena to each other, one compares a phenomenon to a constructed ideal type. This method enables one to compare phenomena independently of exclusive definitions and direct linear influences. It has been suggested by biblical scholars that utopian readings of the Bible can yield insights into socio-political circumstances in the society which produced biblical texts. Using observations by Holquist about utopias’ relationships to reality it is asked if applying the concept of utopia to a biblical passage allows drawing conclusions about the originating society of the Hebrew Bible. The answer is negative. Theory about literary utopias is applied to the case study passage. Numbers 13 is similar to literary utopias in juxtaposing a significantly improved society with a home society, the motif of travellers in an unfamiliar environment, and the feature of a map which is graphically not representable. Noth’s reading of the biblical passage’s toponyms reveals that its map is a utopian map. Numbers 13 is best understood as a literary utopia describing an unrealistic environment and using common utopian techniques and motifs. Despite describing an unrealistic environment, the passage was understood as directly relevant to reality by readers throughout time, for example by Bradford. Following two Puritan readings, it is observed that biblical utopian texts have the potential of being applied in reality by those who see them as a call to action. If a literary utopia is attempted to be brought into reality, it becomes apparent that it marginalises those who are not utopian protagonists; in the case study passage, the non-Israelite tribes, in Bradford’s reading, the Native Nations in New England. The interplay of utopia and dystopia is explored and it is concluded that a definitive trait of literary utopias is their potential to turn into an experienced dystopia if enforced literally. This argument is supported by demonstrating that the utopian traits of the case study passage contain dystopian downsides if read from a different perspective. A contemporary utopian reading of the case study passage is proposed. Today utopian speculation most often appears in works of science fiction (SF). Motifs appearing in the case study passage are read as tropes familiar to a contemporary Bible reader from SF. Following D. Suvin’s SF theory, it is concluded that the Bible in the contemporary world can be understood as a piece of SF. It contains the juxtaposition of an estranged world with a reader’s experienced world as well as a potential utopian and dystopian message.
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Ivanovici, Cristina. "In search of Utopia : a study of the role of German and Romanian academic and literary communities in the production and evaluation of Margaret Atwood’s Utopian/Dystopian fiction." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1716/.
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This study investigates the contribution of Romanian and German academic and literary communities to the formation of readerships for Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fiction and examines various conceptualisations of the Canadian writer as a literary celebrity in Romania and Germany by taking into account the response to and institutionalisation of the writer’s literary dystopias in the two countries both before and after the fall of communism in 1989. It aims to demonstrate that publishing, translation and cultural policies complicate the cultural reception of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fiction in Eastern European countries and re-evaluates critical representations of Eastern European readerships and publishing contexts as invisible within the global literary field. By investigating the strategies which publishers, editors and translators employed in the dissemination and institutionalisation of Atwood’s work in Romania and Germany, this thesis examines paradigm shifts both in translation, publishing and marketing strategies and conceptualisations of literary celebrity as shaped by cultural state policies. To this end, the first chapter highlights representations of literary markets and readerships in the Atwood archive, and analyses how the Atwood literary archive values celebrity and translation. The second chapter charts the first translation projects which were carried out in both East Germany and communist Romania and points out how forms of censorship have impacted upon the production, dissemination and circulation of her work in translation. The third chapter draws upon interviews with Romanian academics and examines teaching and reading practices employed within a post-communist context. Finally, the study suggests how further examinations of the response to both Canadian and dystopian fiction within Eastern European contexts might proceed.
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Llewellyn, Jana Diemer. "Rape in feminist utopian and dystopian fiction Joanna Russ's The female man, Margaret Atwood's The handmaid's tale, and Octavia Butler's The parable of the sower and The parable of the talents /." Click here for download, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/villanova/fullcit?p1432523.
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Akkan, Goksu. "Audiovisual representations of Artificial Intelligence in Dystopian Tech Societies: Scaremongering or Reality? The Cases of Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2017) and Her (Spike Jonze, 2014)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Ramon Llull, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/671832.
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La intel·ligència artificial ha estat un concepte que captiva la humanitat des de fa mil·lennis. Des de l'antiguitat, els humans estan obsessionats amb la idea de crear un ésser humà artificial perfecte amb diferents objectius, com ara la companyia o l'ajuda domèstica, i han escrit sobre ells en textos antics de diverses cultures. Això va evolucionar cap a la literatura de protofantasia o protociència-ficció a l’alta edat mitjana. Tanmateix, no va ser fins al segle XIX que la influent obra de Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), va reunir diferents aspectes de la creació artificial de vida humana artificial en el debat d’una comprensió psicològica social més àmplia. Amb l'arribada dels mitjans audiovisuals al segle XX, aquestes representacions dels humanoides creats artificialment o d'altres creacions amb cert grau de consciència han poblat tant la gran pantalla com la televisió. Aquesta tesi se centra en les connexions socials d'aquestes representacions de la Intel·ligència Artificial, a partir de la sèrie de televisió Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), així com en les pel·lícules Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) i Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), per tal d’analitzar la relació entre la Intel·ligència Artificial i els humans des de perspectives i paradigmes diversos. L’anàlisi audiovisual de les obres seleccionades és seguida d’una exploració de com s’estan produint aquests recents avenços tecnològics en la nostra societat actual, per relacionar-los amb les advertències que proposen les obres seleccionades i que ofereixen una lectura per al futur que requereix la implementació de normatives estrictes sobre la Intel·ligència Artificial per tal d’alleujar les angoixes humanes respecte a la tecnologia. Paraules clau: Intel·ligència artificial, tecnologia, ciència ficció, distopia, estudis cinematogràfics, societat.La inteligencia artificial es un concepto que fascina a la humanidad durante milenios. Desde la antigüedad, los humanos han estado obsesionados con la idea de crear un humano artificial perfecto para diferentes fines, como la compañía o la ayuda doméstica, y han escrito sobre ello en textos fundacionales de diversas culturas. Esto se convirtió progresivamente en literatura de protofantasía o proto-ciencia ficción en la Alta Edad Media. Sin embargo, no fue hasta el siglo XIX cuando la influyente obra Frankenstein (1818) de Mary Shelley reunió diferentes aspectos de la creación de un ser humano artificial, discutidos dentro de una comprensión psicológica y social más amplia. Con la llegada de los medios audiovisuales en el siglo XX, estas representaciones de humanoides creados artificialmente o de otras creaciones con cierto grado de conciencia han poblado tanto la gran pantalla como la televisión. Esta tesis se centra en las conexiones sociales de dichas representaciones de la Inteligencia Artificial, centrándose en la serie de televisión Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), así como en las películas Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) y Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), analizando las relaciones entre la Inteligencia Artificial y los humanos desde una variedad de perspectivas y paradigmas diferentes. El análisis audiovisual de las obras seleccionadas va seguido de una exploración sobre cómo estos avances tecnológicos recientes se están produciendo en nuestra sociedad actual, vinculándolos con las advertencias que formulan las obras seleccionadas y ofreciendo una lectura de futuro que requiere la implementación de una estricta normativa en torno a la Inteligencia Artificial para aliviar las ansiedades humanas sobre la tecnología. Palabras clave: inteligencia artificial, tecnología, sociedad, ciencia ficción, distopía, estudios cinematográficos.
Artificial Intelligence has been a concept that has infatuated humankind for millennia. Since antiquity, humans have been obsessed with the idea of creating a perfect artificial human for different aims such as companionship or domestic help, and ancient cultures have devoted foundational texts to the artificial human. This literary occupation gradually evolved into proto-fantasy or proto-Science Fiction literature in the early middle ages. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that Mary Shelley’s influential work Frankenstein (1818) brought together different aspects of creating an artificial human discussed within a broader social and psychological understanding. With the advent of audiovisual media in the 20th century, such representations of artificially created humanoids or other creations with some degree of consciousness have populated both the silver screen and television. This thesis focuses on the societal connections between such representations of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on the TV show Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011) as well as the films Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) and Her (Spike Jonze, 2014) by analyzing the Artificial Intelligence - human relationships from a variety of different perspectives and paradigms. The audiovisual analyses of the selected works are then followed by an examination of how such recent technological developments are taking place in our current society. These texts under examination exhort us to beware the potential dangers of AI technology, which require implementation of strict regulations around the Artificial Intelligence framework in order to alleviate human anxieties about technology. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, technology, technology and society, Science Fiction, dystopia, film studies, society.
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Pettersson, Björn. "Brist på själslig insikt? : Utomjordingar och deras forskning kring människan i Dark City." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Estetisk-filosofiska fakulteten, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-13020.
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The paper examines how human inner properties and the interpretation of the external worldare explained and presented in Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998). Aspects as the relationship between the body and soul/consciousness, body snatching, memory transferences and dystopian cities are analyzed. The field of study is compared to a general science-fiction film perspective regarding the aspects. Dark City contains an alien race with a common mind, but who lacks soul and individuality. They represent what humanity can become if the scientific development goes too far. They conduct research about the human soul to save their own race. They fail to reach the soul trough scientific experiments, which include memory transferences. The only remaining explanation is that the soul has an immaterial origin. This is against the common materialistic view in the current science-fiction genre; the inner aspects are to a large extent explained from a cognitive/neural perspective. This means that Dark City implicit criticize movies and theories which states that we may be able to understand and create copies of the human consciousness.
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Hudberg, Alexander. "The Ministry of Post-Truth: Using George Orwell’s 1984 to Develop English as a Foreign Language Students’ Critical Thinking Skills." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157083.
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In 2016, “post-truth” was chosen as the word of the year by the Oxford Dictionaries. This is a concept that has come to be associated with a type of political discourse in which objective facts are less important than factual inaccuracies which appeal to emotion to influence people’s attitudes. Due to this recent increase in post-truth politics, critical thinking becomes an important skill to master. Yet, studies have suggested that students often lack the necessary skills for critical thinking. One way of approaching this problem is through the reading of literature. This essay specifically argues that George Orwell’s 1984 provides teachers with an excellent opportunity to develop critical thinking skills among upper secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) students, with the novel as an excellent platform to also promote student reflection on current post-truth politics. In order to work with 1984 to foster critical thinking, this essay utilizes a literature-based, pedagogical model developed by Bobkina and Stefanova that draws inspiration from elements of reader-response theory and critical literacy pedagogy (CLP). To show how 1984 can be used to discuss current post-truth politics, a thematic analysis was performed where central themes and concepts from the novel, such as doublethink, Newspeak and telescreens, were compared to current trends in post-truth politics. The analysis itself was structured around the following themes: the distortion of truth for political gains, the use of language as an instrument of political power and the use of technology to spread misinformation. Following the analysis, a lesson project based on Bobkina and Stefanova’s four-stage model was constructed, focusing on different pre-, while- and post-reading activities aimed at making the students develop their critical thinking skills as well as their awareness of the three themes mentioned above. While this approach is deemed suitable for working with 1984 to discuss post-truth politics, a suggestion for further research would be to use Bobkina and Stefanova’s model together with more contemporary dystopian novels in order to discuss other topics that are more relatable to young adults, e.g. identity issues and social stratification.
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Nienaber, J. E. "Distopie in die grafiese roman : V for Vendetta as voorbeeld." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/21688.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2008.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the genre of dystopian fiction in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta in which a futuristic police state, run by a totalitarian regime is portrayed. Since V for Vendetta draws on a number of other dystopian texts, New Historicist theory is employed which begins its analysis of literary texts by attempting to look at other texts as well as the historical context in which it originated, to aid in the understanding of that text. Therefore, V for Vendetta with its thorough character development and multi-dimensional storyline that the larger format of the graphic novel allows, is studied alongside other highly regarded novels. The characteristics of the nightmarish anti-utopia is identified and analysed in V for Vendetta by looking at real examples of totalitarian regimes from history. The chapters are divided into what I identified as the main themes of the totalitarian dystopia. Chapter one explains the concept of the utopia in order to grasp the concept of dystopia, and more specifically, the Totalitarian dystopia. Chapter two looks at the social structure of V for Vendetta as well as the common Totalitarian dystopia. Chapter three discusses the issue of censorship which is a recurring theme in dystopian fiction. Chapter four examines the manner in which the totalitarian regime manipulates the populace of the dystopia through propaganda. Chapter five discusses the systems of surveillance and lack of privacy in the Totalitarian dystopia and a chapter on the protagonist in dystopia concludes this study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studiestuk word die genre van distopiese fiksie in die grafiese roman, V for Vendetta behandel, wat ’n futuristiese polisiestaat teen die agtergrond van ’n totalitêre staatsbestel uitbeeld. Omdat V for Vendetta by soveel ander distopiese tekste leen, word dit vanuit die teoretiese oogpunt van New Historicism bestudeer, wat in die ontleding van ’n roman ander tekste asook die geskiedkundige konteks van daardie roman ondersoek, ten einde dit beter te begryp. Daarom word V for Vendetta, wat vanweë die grafiese roman se langer formaat wat ruimte skep vir deeglike karakterontwikkeling en ’n veelvlakkige storielyn, as volwaardige roman naas ander hoogaangeskrewe romans behandel. Aan die hand van ware voorbeelde van totalitêre regimes uit die geskiedenis word die eienskappe eie aan ’n nagmerriestaat in V for Vendetta geïdentifiseer en geanaliseer en dit is waardeur ek my laat lei het ten opsigte van die hoofstukindeling. In hoofstuk een word die begrip van utopie eers duidelik gemaak om die distopie, en meer spesifiek die Totalitêre distopie te verstaan. In hoofstuk twee word daar gekyk na die sosiale samestelling en magstruktuur binne V for Vendetta en die Totalitêre distopie in die algemeen. Hoofstuk drie bespreek die kwessie van sensuur - ’n gewilde tema in distopiese fiksie. In hoofstuk vier word ondersoek ingestel na die manier waarop die Totalitêre-distopie die burgery breinspoel deur propaganda. Hoofstuk vyf bespreek die verskynsel van bewaking en die skending van privaatheid in die totaliêre distopie en in die sesde hoofstuk word daar gefokus op die protagonis in die distopie.
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Holt, Macon Ashford Bannon. "A sonic fiction of boring dystopia." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2017. http://research.gold.ac.uk/22026/.
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This thesis attempts to re-engage the practice of Sonic Fiction devised by Kodwo Eshun, within the historical context that Mark Fisher termed, boring dystopia, and produce A Sonic Fiction of Boring Dystopia. This also shows how the practice of sonic fiction might intercede to overcome an impasse between a traditional critical theory (Adorno) and Deleuzian approaches to the analysis of popular music. The thesis is in two parts; the first provides an overview of the concept of boring dystopia and the practice of sonic fiction. The second is A Sonic Fiction of Boring Dystopia, that performs an experimental exploration of the practice sonic fiction set across five concepts; Attention, Complicity, Catharsis, Home and Conjunction, three chapters that reconceptualize the works of David Foster Wallace, Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, and Theodor Adorno as theory-fictions and sonic fictions, and 6 experiential fictionalized accounts of musical experience. This is followed by the conclusion of the thesis. By developing these tools it is argued that we can chart a ‘line of flight’ (Deleuze and Guattari 2013b: 13) to overcome the impasse that inhibits our thinking about the emancipatory potential of popular music. To help us move beyond the rigid pessimism of critical theory and the sometimes apolitical optimism of the Deleuzian approach. Thus allowing us to discover new territory, which the present paradigm may also afford.
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Tobin, Stephen Christopher. "Visual Dystopias from Mexico’s Speculative Fiction: 1993-2008." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437528785.
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Peters, Rebecca Anne. "When Code replaces scripture: Black Mirror, Technology and the Specter of Cristianity." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673473.
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This thesis analyzes 12 episodes from the dystopian science fiction anthology series, Black Mirror (2011-present). Episodes selected are those that, as argued in this text, depict the role of technology as replacing that of traditional religion, namely Christianity. The importance of looking at these episodes together becomes clear when considering contemporary debates around technology and our collective technological aims. The analysis of individual episodes forms a foundation for the reading of Black Mirror and its technology within the framework of Christian concepts. Episodes are compared to the Christian concepts they mirror, historical events and theological debates within Christianity, and contemporary trends and events relating to technology. Throughout the history of western civilization, Christian belief has played an important role in shaping cultural ideologies particularly conceptions of death, suffering, and humanity’s place in the world; these ideas continue to penetrate cultural narratives today, despite declining self-recognition in the west as religious.Aquesta tesi analitza el paper de la tecnologia en substitució del de la religió cristiana a través de 12 episodis de la sèrie de ciència-ficció Black Mirror (2011-present). La importància d'analitzar aquests episodis en conjunt es fa evident quan es consideren debats contemporanis entorn de la tecnologia i els nostres objectius tecnològics col·lectius. Es comparen els episodis amb conceptes cristians que reflecteixen, els esdeveniments històrics i els debats teològics del cristianisme i les tendències i esdeveniments contemporanis relacionats amb la tecnologia. Històricament, el cristianisme ha configurat la ideologia cultural d'occident, com les concepcions de la mort, el sofriment i el lloc de la humanitat al món; aquestes idees continuen penetrant en les narratives culturals actuals, tot i disminuir l'autoreconeixement d'Occident com a religiós.
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Jackson, Sarah Anne. "Utopia and dystopia in futuristic nonfiction television." Thesis, Montana State University, 2010. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2010/jackson/JacksonS0510.pdf.
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Fiction often represents the future in either a utopian or dystopian light. Utopian fiction presents worlds where life is perfection. Dystopian fiction's conflict comes directly from the characters' interactions with the problems in their world. When nonfiction television enters into speculation by making programs about the future, they also enter into these two categories of fiction. Some programs show a world returning to a perfect Eden, but they begin with the dystopian ending of the human race on earth. Other shows promise technological utopias, but avoid obvious problems with their technologically dependent tomorrows. These shows all take tropes from dystopian science fiction, but use their status as science documentaries to deny that any of the critiques of fiction belong in their programs.
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Paz, Mariano. "Ideology and dystopia : political discourse in contemporary fiction cinema." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.529922.
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The present thesis consists of a discussion of contemporary Western science fiction cinema from a cultural studies perspective. In particular, this work is focused on the analysis of political ideology and its discourses as they are conveyed in the visual, aural, and narrative dimensions of a selected corpus of films from three different countries: Argentina, Britain and the United States. The selection of this range of cinema industries is informed by the intention of widening the spectrum of science fiction criticism, which is mostly focused on American cinema, and also on the cross comparative purpose of examining three central forms in which Western films are produced and distributed: the hegemonic American blockbuster, the independent peripheral cinema of Latin America, and the mid-level position exemplified by a European film industry such as Britain's. The analysis of the selected corpus is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on several theoretical frameworks from cultural studies and social philosophy, such as Lacanian psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, post-structuralism, and critical theory. The underlying premise of this thesis is that, through the representation of imaginary, dystopian worlds and societies, science fiction films are in fact engaging with the critique of contemporary reality and articulating collective concerns and anxieties about the present. In consequence, films are examined here in a hermeneutic manner, with the objective of identifying and revealing the complex set of critiques of contemporary institutions, practices and discourses that are conveyed in the texts. The discussion is organised in three chapters, each covering three case studies that are representative of the selected cinema industries. Films studied in detail include the Star Wars prequels (1999-2005), La Sonämbula (1998), Adios Querida Luna (2005), La Antena (2007), Code 46 (2004), Children of Men (2006), and 28 Weeks Later (2007). Each chapter is organised according to certain theoretical parameters that allow for a critical reading of the texts, establishing connections between the films' subtexts and the social contexts in which they were produced. This work aims to demonstrate that the analysis of popular culture is essential for the understanding of how political concerns, anxieties and traumas can be expressed and articulated, whether in avowed or disavowed forms, not only in hegemonic texts but across the entire field of Western cultural production. Additionally, this thesis argues for the need to approach the study of cinema from the point of view of critical theory, as an appropriate way to uncover the ideological dimensions, represented in the films, that are critical of dominant discourses and institutions.
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Bowser, Alexander Jon. "Bad pixels challenges of microbudget digital cinema." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4852.
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Bad Pixels is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture, produced, written, and directed by Alexander Jon Bowser as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The materials contained herein serve as a record of the microbudget filmmaking experience. This thesis documents the challenges confronted by a first-time feature filmmaker; an evaluation of both the theory and application of a dynamic microbudget approach to digital content creation. From script development to digital distribution, the thesis aims to reflect on technical and procedural decisions made and assess their impact on the overall experience and final product.ID: 029810312; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Includes screenplay.; Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.
M.F.A.
Masters
Film
Arts and Humanities
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Divine, Susan Marie. "Utopias of Thought, Dystopias of Space: Science Fiction in Contemporary Peninsular Narrative." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195666.
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This study serves as an introduction to three recent narratives in Spanish Science Fiction. While this literary genre has long been read in Spain in translation, it is only recently that Sci-Fi has been successful as a popular literature produced by native authors. Álex de la Iglesia, Gabriela Bustelo and Rafael Reig have worked in realist and genre fiction through their careers but chose to use Science Fiction to speak of the rapidly changing space of Madrid. Their criticism is centered on the changes to the physical, social, economic and political landscape of Madrid post-1992. My analysis is based on the works of the geographer David Harvey, among others, which helps to underline the importance of the urbanization of capital and consciousness that the three narratives disentangle. While being three very different texts - one film and two novels -, they all manipulate concerns of time and space to come to a similar conclusion. Their narratives serve as a warning about how the good intentions of humanist theories like feminism or scientific advancement can easily turn into a nightmare by instead serving the needs of capitalism rather than those of social justice.
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Cheong, Weng Lam. "Beyond a feminist dystopia : Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." Thesis, University of Macau, 2009. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2456330.
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Jeannin, Hélène. "Les représentations fictionnelles de la surveillance. Dystopies contemporaines de la redite a l'innovation." Thesis, Paris 3, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010PA030152.
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Une quinzaine d'oeuvres provenant de champs artistiques et culturels différents [littérature et cinéma] réunies par un dénominateur commun, seront soumises à notre questionnement : existe-t-il un idéal type de société sous surveillance ? A travers l'usage de la taxinomie et une approche comparatiste, nous dresserons une typologie des images comme éléments clés des représentations. Au système de multiplication de référents symboliques interne à chaque oeuvre s'ajoute celui d'un réseau de correspondances visuelles exogène basé sur un référentiel d'images quasi immuable. Les oeuvres se révèlent riches en sens et en symboles. Les nombreuses images convoquées par l'écrivain par le biais de métaphores ou autres tropes, rejoignent celles du réalisateur. Une étude transversale aboutit à un répertoire de codifications visuelles portant sur des univers imaginaires. On constate ainsi par ce biais un processus incessant de recyclage d'idées et d'histoires, qui se muent en standard et permettent de capturer une audience de plus en plus internationale, tout en forgeant un imaginaire social qui s'instaure par contagion. Les propos servis sont sérieux. L'ensemble dissémine une vision du monde qui obéit le plus souvent au principe de rationalisation, censé de s ' inscrire dans un ordre du contrôle et de la manipulation. Jaillissent des mondes nouveaux, comme porteurs de révélations quasi universelles. Nos auteurs [de science-fiction] s'inscrivent dans une longue tradition [l'utopie]. Mais la pression du genre, des motifs obligés et des conventions, n'entame pas leur capacité au renouveau, et la redite n'est pas un frein à l'innovationAbout fifteen works from different artistic and cultural backgrounds [literature and cinema], and sharing a common denominator, will be submitted to our questioning: is there an ideal type of society under surveillance? Through the use of taxonomy and a comparatist approach, we will draw up a typology of images as key elements of our representations. The system of multiplying symbolic referents inherent in each work completes a network of visual exogenous correspondence based on a relatively steady image referential. Works prove to be rich, both in meaning and symbol. The many images used by the writer, by means of metaphors or other tropes, meet that of a fiction director. A transversal study leads to a directory of visual codifications bearing upon imaginary worlds. This is how we observe an incessant process of recycling ideas and stories, that evolve into standards, thus enabling to capture the eye of an ever more international public, while forging a social imaginary world, settling in by way of contagion. The topics dealt with are serious. As a whole, they disseminate a vision of the world that obeys, most of the time, a rationalization principle that is supposed to be in line with control and manipulation. New worlds arise, bringing out universal eye-openers. Our [science-fiction] authors fall in with a long tradition [utopia]. But the genre, via obligated topics and conventions, do not for as much pressure one to diminish their capacity for renewal, and repetition does not curb their innovation
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Drage, Eleanor Guistina Prudence <1991>. "Utopia/Dystopia, Race, Gender, and New Forms of Humanism in Women's Science Fiction." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2019. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/8828/1/Eleanor%20Drage%20-%20Thesis%20-Cotutela%20.pdf.
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This thesis aims to uncover new forms of humanism grounded in a critique of systems that produce and reify race and gender by staging a conversation between six contemporary works of science fiction (SF) written by women from Italy, France, Spain, and the UK, and five acclaimed theorists in the fields of gender, queer, postcolonial, humanist, and cultural studies: Judith Butler, Rosi Braidotti, Gayatri Spivak, Paul Gilroy, and Jack Halberstam. As outlined in the second chapter, I focus, in particular, on Butler’s conception of subjects who ‘become’ through affective encounters, Braidotti’s critical posthumanism, Spivak and Gilroy’s respective notions of ‘planetarity,’ and Halberstam’s theory of a ‘queer art of failure.’ In doing so, this thesis asserts the complementarity of academic and science fictional enquiries into what I view as examples of new forms of humanism that arise from historicised interrogations of systems of race and gender. The first chapter introduces the way in which SF appeals to women writers who embrace the genre’s political energy and its anti-racist, anti-sexist, and humanistic potential by tracing a genealogy of European women’s SF from the seventeenth century to the present day. The second half of the thesis reads examples of politically charged SF from my corpus alongside the critical theory outlined in the second chapter, in order to demonstrate how SF engages with new forms of humanism through a critique and reformulation of issues of race and gender. I follow this analysis with an exploration of the way in which SF’s unique spatial attributes can probe the borders of the planetary humanisms or ‘planetarity’ proposed by Gilroy and Spivak. I finally assess, by way of a conclusion, the extent to which SF can reassemble and amplify the achievements of these new forms of anti-racist and anti-sexist humanism.
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Satterwhite, Trayevion Maurice. "The Chronicles of Autzen." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/361.
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My statement of purpose covers the story I have been writing as well as my journey on how I got to where I am today. The beginning is an introduction to the entirety of my work. From there, it goes into my personal life, and what inspired me to write in the first place. As it is read through, the reader will get hints of harsh times in life, the elements of history, and the inspiration of the literature of video games. With all of these elements combined, it explains the purpose of my writing being closely entwined with dealing with the roughness of situations, and finding a way to bust through despite the disadvantages dealt to someone.
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Cheboub, Aziz. "La représentation des islamismes dans les récits du futur de la littérature d'expression française contemporaine." Electronic Thesis or Diss., Strasbourg, 2023. http://www.theses.fr/2023STRAC027.
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La littérature contemporaine offre une variété de récits d'anticipation politique-fiction qui abordent l'islamisme de différentes manières. Dans le but de mieux appréhender la façon dont les écrivains traitent cette réalité dans une perspective anticipatoire, notre étude se concentre sur cinq romans : La Tentation de la défaite (2006) d’Antoine Vitkine, 2028 (2006) de Thérèse Fournier, Jihad (2017) de Jean-Marc Ligny, 2084 (2015) de Boualem Sansal et Soumission (2015) de Michel Houellebecq. Notre étude propose une analyse comparative de ces œuvres d'anticipation et de politique-fiction, qui sont étroitement liées à notre réalité contemporaine. Dans cette optique, nous explorons l'histoire du radicalisme islamique afin de mieux comprendre les différentes représentations de l'islamisme dans notre corpus. Notre étude met en évidence la diversité des auteurs constituant notre corpus d'analyse, ainsi que la représentation plurielle de l'islamisme. Nous examinons en premier lieu l'interaction entre la réalité et la fiction dans ces récits, ainsi que la manière dont les régimes théocratiques à tendance phallocratique y sont dépeints. Par ailleurs, nous nous penchons sur les choix narratifs spécifiques à chaque romancier afin de mieux comprendre les influences qui ont façonné leurs récits. Pour compléter notre étude, nous analysons également, à la lumière des événements actuels, dans quelle mesure les mondes décrits dans nos romans ont trouvé une concrétisation partielle. En effet, l'une des fonctions prépondérantes de la dystopie réside dans sa capacité à sensibiliser les lecteurs aux dangers potentiels. Notre objectif est donc d'évaluer dans quelle mesure ces romans ont réussi à alerter les lecteurs face à ces menacesContemporary literature offers a diversity of political fiction and anticipation narratives on Islamism. To better understand how writers approach this reality, our study focuses on five novels: La Tentation de la défaite (2006) by Antoine Vitkine, 2028 (2006) by T. Fournier, Jihad (2017) by J.-M. Ligny, 2084 (2015) by B. Sansal, and Soumission(2015) by M. Houellebecq. Our study presents a comparative analysis of these works of anticipation and political fiction, closely anchored in our contemporary reality. We explore the history of Islamic radicalism to gain a better understanding of the various representations of Islamism in our corpus. We examine how reality and fiction interact in these narratives, especially concerning the portrayal of theocratic and phallocratic tendencies. To complement our analysis, we also assess the extent to which the worlds described in our dystopian narratives partially reflect current events
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Warwick, Harry. "The aesthetics of enclosure : dystopia and dispossession in the 1980s Hollywood science-fiction film." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2018. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/427159/.
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As an increasing body of historical and economic scholarship attests, the processes Marx placed under the heading of 'primitive accumulation', and which he saw as the precondition of capitalism, continue today in a particularly intense form. If Marx's main example in Capital, Volume 1 (1867) was the enclosure of English land from the late fifteenth century, now scholars can point to the expansion of intellectual property rights, the privatisation of water and other public services, the sale of the US national forests, the imposition of 'structural adjustment programmes', and the war in Afghanistan as so many 'new enclosures'-efforts to bring ever greater zones of human activity within the ambit of capitalist production. Yet what remains unexamined in this still-growing literature is how the new enclosures have been represented in the sphere of culture. Have cultural forms been able to register these new expropriations? If so, how have they depicted a process that is pervasive, but whose forms of appearance are so diverse? This thesis endeavours to answer such questions through the analysis of five major Hollywood science-fiction films of the 1980s: Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983), and Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). It argues that, taken together, these films develop an 'aesthetic of enclosure': a series of representational strategies that make enclosure visible. Typically understood by scholars as a critical and historicising genre, the science-fiction film is well positioned to detect, examine, and challenge capitalism's renewed efforts to privatise and dispossess.
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Lee, Sung-Ae. "Utopias, dystopias, and abjection pathways for society's others in George Eliot's major fictions /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/45363.
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Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2003.Bibliography: p. 250-270.
Introduction -- Female subjectivity, abjection, and agency in Scenes of clerical life -- A questionable Utopia: Adam Bede -- Dystopia and the frustration of agency in the double Bildungsroman of The mill on the floss -- Abjection and exile in Silas Marner -- Justice and feminist Utopia in Romola -- Radicalism as Utopianism in Felix Holt, the radical -- The pursuit of what is good: Utopian impulses in Middlemarch -- Nationalism and multiculturalism: shaping the future as transformative Utopia in Daniel Deronda.
Within a framework based on Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogism and Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, this thesis investigates how Utopian impulses are manifested in George Eliot's novels. Eliot's utopianism is presented first by a critique of dystopian elements in society and later by placing such elements in a dialogic relationship with utopian ideas articulated by leading characters. Each novel includes characters who are abjected because they have different ideas from the social norms, and such characters are silenced and expelled because society evaluates these differences in terms of its gender, class and racial prejudices. Dystopia is thus constituted as a resolution of the conflict between individual and society by the imposition of monologic values. Dialogic possibilities are explored by patterned character configurations and by the cultivation of ironical narrators' voices which enfold character focalization within strategic deployment of free indirect discourse. -- Eliot's early works, from Scenes of Clerical Life to Silas Marner, focus their dystopian elements as a critique of a monologic British society intolerant of multiple consciousnesses, and which consigns "other" voices to abjection and thereby precludes social progress by rejecting these "other" voices. In her later novels, from Romola to Daniel Deronda, Eliot presents concrete model utopian societies that foreshadow progressive changes to the depicted, existing society. Such an imagined society incorporates different consciousnesses and hence admits abject characters, who otherwise would have been regarded as merely transgressive, and thus silenced or eliminated. Abjected characters in Eliot's fiction tend also to be utopists, and hence have potential for positively transforming the world. Where they are depicted as gaining agency, they also in actuality or by implication bring about change in society, the nation and the wider world. -- An underlying assumption is that history can be changed for the better, so that utopian ideals can be actualized by means of human agency rather than by attributing teleological processes to supernatural forces. When a protagonist's utopian impulses fail, it is both because of dystopian elements of society and because of individual human weaknesses. In arguably her most utopian works, Romola and Daniel Deronda, Eliot creates ideal protagonists, one of whom remains in the domestic sphere because of gender, and another who is (albeit voluntarily) removed from British society because of his race/class. However, Romola can be seen as envisaging a basis for female advancement to public life, while Daniel Deronda suggests a new world order through a nationalism grounded in multiculturalism and a global utopianism.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
v, 270 p
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Thibodeau, Amanda. "Gender, Utopia, and Temporality in Feminist Science Fiction: (Re)Reading Classic Texts of the Past, in the Present, and for the Future." Scholarly Repository, 2011. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/586.
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This dissertation explores the ways that women authors of science fiction have altered conventions of utopia and science fiction in order to revise conceptions of gender, sexuality, the body, and the environment. I examine several twentieth-century feminist critical dystopias that continue to betray genre and form, and to shape the science fiction being written at this moment. Each of the works demonstrates particular elements that facilitate its revisionary power: challenging and deconstructing sex/gender systems, blending utopian and dystopian conventions, and engaging in temporal play. By doing so they accomplish a range of tasks: disrupting generic and historical conventions, blending genres, redefining utopia, and making connections with present realities in order to make a case for social change, particularly for female and queer subjects. Though many of the texts are considered canonical by sf standards, and have been widely praised and critiqued in academic publications, each one continues its project of resistance in the light of the genre and of ever-evolving theories of gender, sexuality, race, and identity. As a scholar of gender and queer theory, I find within sf an extraordinary realm of potential for those willing to challenge norms and imagine new possibilities. In their rejection of system and form, the authors render impure the genre of science fiction, providing a new space in which utopian ideals can become literary and cultural resistance.
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Swirski, Peter. "Dystopia or dischtopia : an analysis of the SF paradigms in Thomas M. Disch." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61241.
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On the basis of an ontological analogy between the worlds of myth and dystopia, the present thesis argues the latter's inherently "metaphysical" character. As such, dystopia is regarded as categorically different from Science Fiction which, however grim in its surface presentation, always remains paradigmatically "non-metaphysical," i.e., neutral. This generic distinction is then applied to the analysis of the three most important SF works of Thomas M. Disch, one of the most interesting and accomplished contemporary SF writers. The generic, as well as socio-aesthetic discussion of Camp Concentration, 334, and On Wings of Song, traces Disch's development of a characteristically "Dischtopian" paradigm of social SF.
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Sundkvist, Patrick. "Dreams of Democracy within Extreme Dystopias : A Study of the Imperium of Man." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur (from 2013), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-84245.
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The purpose of this essay is to analyse several of the extreme dystopian elements found in the Warhammer: 40000 megatext and reveal how these elements display critique towards authoritarian policies and philosophy. I opted for a close reading of several texts and analysed several characters’ relationship to the galactic empire known as the Imperium of Man and found themes of suppression of thought, self-existential crises and wishes for freedom. Through my analysis of the megatext of Warhammer: 40000, I argue that it is the governance of the Imperium of Man that creates these humanitarian issues, and, while not an explicit reference, has been influenced by our own human history.Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera ett flertal dystopiska element som existerar i det fiktiva universumet Warhammer: 40000 och påvisa hur dessa element avslöjar kritik riktad mot auktoritär politik och filosofi. Jag valde en fördjupad läsning av ett antal texter och analyserade karaktärernas relation till det galaktiska imperiet Imperium of Man och fann områden vars fokus var förtryck mot yttrandefrihet, existensiella kriser och drömmar om frihet. I min analys av Warhammer: 40000 argumenterar jag att styrelseskicket som etablerats i Imperium of Man skapar dessa humanitära kriser, vilket till viss del blivit inspirerat av mänsklighetens egen historia.
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Geef, Dennis [Verfasser]. "Late Capitalism and Its Fictitious Future(s) : The Postmodern, Science Fiction, and the Contemporary Dystopia / Dennis Geef." Bonn : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1077265468/34.
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