Dystopian Literature Research Articles

The Order and the Other: Young Adult Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction by Joseph W. Campbell

The Order and the Other: Young Adult Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction by Joseph W. Campbell

COVID-20 DAN SEPILAHAN FIKSI LAINNYA SEBAGAI BENTUK SASTRA DISTOPIA

This article discusses the literary narrative of dystopia in Covid-20 and Other Sorts of Fiction. This study aims to determine the formulation of dystopia and discourse short stories offered in Covid-20 and Other Fiction. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with the postmodernism approach of Jean-Francois Lyotard. For data collection with literature study. To analyze the data using the descriptive analysis method. The research results found that dystopian literature provides formulations in it, namely, the time landscape (the future of the world and the Divine), catastrophic situations (dehumanization, chaos), coveted transformations, in which a new but unpleasant world is created due to social degeneration, an order. destructive social activities, or the consequences of social transformation efforts that lead to disasters.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: social justice and the rise of dystopian art and literature post-Arab Uprisings

ABSTRACT The Arab uprisings ushered an unrealistic level of euphoria across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); however, ten years on, most of the same dictatorships continue to rule and reactionary forces have only become more powerful. For many, the Arab street has become a more dangerous, even dystopic, place. With democracy curtailed and economic prosperity an unlikely possibility in the near future, some writers and artists in the MENA region are turning away from the nightmares of the present towards the futuristic lands of science fiction and fantasy, imaginary places where they have the freedom to openly reflect upon their predicament. Indeed, it is reported that dystopian literature in Arabic fiction has proliferated in recent years. The same trend can be seen in art: a 2016 exhibition in London billed itself as ‘a dazzling journey into the future of Palestine—through both utopian and dystopian visions of what lies ahead’. In this article, I first briefly detail the recent oppression in Egypt and Palestine—what I call the dystopian present—including against artists and writers. I then look at the contemporary role of art and literature as social critique.

With dark humor about a dark future

Abstract This article analyses the relationship between black humor and dystopian literature. In dystopia, humor can appear on the surface as language or situational comics, but there is also a deeper link between these two literary phenomena: they confront the reader with an unexpected notion in order to bring him to a critical reflection. There are many dystopias in the Nordic literature that use comic elements. Three of them are discussed in this article: Axel Jensens Epp (1965), Lena Anderssons Duck City (2006) and Kaspar Colling Nielsens Den danske borgerkrig 2018–24 (2013). The analysis shows that classic black humor is enriched with other tragicomic, satirical or surrealistic elements and significantly contributes to the critical tone of the text. In all cases humor is used for the same purpose, and this is a critique of superior power (the so-called superiority theory). Therefore, humor can be considered not only as a stylistic means, but also as a principle of construction of the dystopian works.

Choose your future: a feminist perspective on Construction 4.0 as techno-utopia or digital dystopia

In 2017, the Chancellor of the Exchequer launched the UK Industrial Strategy, inviting society to ‘choose the future’. By way of government support for and investment in digital innovation, particularly in the construction industry and public infrastructure, the strategy was aimed at stimulating the UK’s industrial productivity and wealth. This paper examines the UK Industrial Strategy by applying it within the context of the utopian/dystopian literature genre and through a feminist lens. The paper finds that the strategy looks set to deliver outcomes similar to the themes of the dystopian literature genre, which imagine that technological progress can be achieved only at the expense of social equity, suggesting that the currently gendered idea of Construction 4.0 could exacerbate current gender divisions and inequalities that currently blight the construction industry. Given more balanced strategic support and investment, Construction 4.0 might actually, in a new reality, offer opportunities to resolve issues of gender equity in the industry. The paper concludes with a timely call to researchers and industry professionals to intersect gender inclusivity across all aspects of future research, innovation and strategy in relation to Construction 4.0, so that the chosen future will support the careers and contributions of all genders that choose to participate in it.

Distopya Romanlarının Oluşumu ve Tarihsel gelişimi; Çevirilerinin İncelenmesinde Öne Çıkan Kuramsal Yaklaşımlar

Dystopian literature emerged as a response to utopia, evolved as a result of its intertextual relation to utopian literature and became a distinctive genre in the twentieth century. Dystopia, which defines and justifies itself with its opposition to utopia, has inherited the utopia’s criticisms for the society. If we look at the history of the utopian literature, we see that the “island” is a common concept. The author of the utopian literature creates an alienation from social order by isolating the fiction from the reality. Therefore, the author can demonstrate in an unbiased way the flaws of the social order, and can describe what should be done for a perfect society. Dystopian literature, in opposition to utopia, uses isolation in order to justify itself with the reality, not for alienation. The translator’s ideological connection to the author with his/her criticism to the author creates a contradiction with the translator’s invisibility, and forces the translator to become visible. The presence of such contradictions forms a fruitful basis for the translation critics and researchers. The contradiction between the translator’s invisibility and the ideological discourse is important in order to determine the translator’s decisions in the translation process and the trends that dominate the translation process and to make sense of these trends.

Premissas e perigos de um constitucionalismo distópico: reflexões à luz de Philip K. Dick

This article is based on the Law and Literature methodology. It analyzes the shortage of contemporary utopian narratives. The object of analysis are the characteristics of constitutionalism in light of literary categories from dystopian literature – especially regarding Philip K. Dick’s “Minority Report”. Thus, this paper examines to what extent the contemporary paranoia – both subjective and systemic – has strengthened court decisions based on pretentious illicit conspirations, as well as institutional solutions justified by the prospective use of automated processes, supposedly neutral and efficient. This paper also discusses the incorporation of a certain time paradigm of contemporary cultures, which is linear and unidirectional, with a rigid differentiation between past, present and future. Such conception creates temporal ghettos, besides imposing a dominant social rhythm that frustrates the very protective trait of constitutionalism, regarding the life projects of vulnerable minorities. Thus, this work reflects upon the fragility of the argumentative integrity seen in certain judicial sentences which are justified by consequentialist lines of thought, and which, by projecting future catastrophic effects for possible decisions, end up legitimizing opposite outcomes. In conclusion, the need for overcoming fear as the fundamental feeling in the social, institutional power is discussed.

الواقع الديستوبي في روايه فرانكنشتاين في بغداد للكاتب احمد سعداوي

ان الادب الديستوبي مهم في الادب القديم والمعاصر. إذ انه يصور عالما كل شي فيه منقوص, فوضوي و مشوه. هذا النوع من الادب يظهر صوره مرعبه لكنها حقيقية في بعض المجتمعات المنكوبه. يتناول هذا النوع من الادب بشكل اساسي الحرب, القمع والحالات الكارثيه.ان كل خصائص الادب الديستوبي هي تقريبا حقيقيه في روايه الكاتب احمد سعداوي فرانكنشتاين في بغداد. هذه الخصائص هي واقعيه وحقيقيه في المكان الذي حدثت فيه احداث الروايه. تتضح هذه الخصائص في خوف الناس من الحكومه والقوات الامريكيه والهجمات الارهابيه. وايضاً الحياة غير المستقره التي ارغموا على التكيف معها. بالاضافه الى انعدام الحريه والاستقلاليه التي خلقت فجوه كبيره بين المواطنين والحكومه.
 دُمرت بغداد من قبل عده عوامل قمعيه متمثلة بلقوات الامريكيه المؤذيه, الهجمات التفجيريه الانتحاريه وعدم اهلية كبار مسؤلي الدوله وايضا الاعتداءات الطائفيه للميليشيات. الاداة الخياليه الوحيده التي استخدمها سعداوي في روايته هي بخلقه شخصيه الشسمه. حاول سعداوي ان يلفت انتباه قرائه الى عالم واقعي-خيالي. كل بقيه الاحداث هي واقعيه وموجوده حقا في الحياه اليوميه لبغداد في عام 2005 ومثالا على ذالك البيئه غير الآمنه والتفكك الاسري وتناثر الاشلاء للضحايا وهذه كلها صور واقعيه.سعداوي وصف بطريقه واقعيه المرحله السوداء التي مرت ببغداد في ذالك الحين. قٌهرت المدينه بسفك الدماء, التعذيب , والقتل الجماعي. 
 ربط الادب الديستوبي عناصر واقعيه مخصصه لزمان كتابتها مع اضافات علميه وعناصر خياليه التي تمثل الاتجاه المروع الذي نتجه له. فرانكنشتاين في بغداد قلبت هذه المعادله التقليديه للادب الديستوبي إذ ان اساسيات الدستوبيا في هذا الروايه ليست مرتبطه بالعالم النظري او غير الواقعي وانما مرتبط بعالم العنف الحقيقي المروع الذي شهدته بغداد في سنه 2005.

Exploring the Relationship between Dystopian Literature and the Activism of Generation Z Young Adults

Some recent research has posited that the independent and revolutionary traits of Generation Z can be traced to the circumstances of their births, specifically the 9/11 attacks and the Great Recession. While there has been research examining the effect of these events on the type of behavior Generation Z exhibits towards political and societal issues, there has been little research that examines the literary culture in which they grew up. Did popular dystopian works such as Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2009), Divergent by Veronica Roth (2011), and The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009) have an impact on their political identities and behaviors? This paper examines that question by using a mixed method approach: a public questionnaire, thirteen in-depth interviews with a select group of Generation Z students from the University of Georgia, and direct content analyses of the key works under consideration. This study argues that the relationship between dystopian literature and young adult activism may offer insight into the ways literature can be used as a revolutionary tool. This study also hopes to add to the literature exploring the characteristics of Generation Z and the significance dystopian literature may have not only on a young adult’s thoughts but also their actions. KEYWORDS: Dystopian Literature; Dystopian Literary Media; Generation Z; Youth Activism; Literary Influence; Activist Typology; Aspects of Literary Response: A New Questionnaire; College Students; Divergent; Catching Fire; The Maze Runner; Literary Culture, The Hunger Games

Memory of Water: Boundaries of Political Geography and World Literature

The fact that dystopian literature has a great potential for envisioning alternative futures is elaborated in this article in relation to the Finnish/British author Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water (2013). Itäranta’s gloomy low-fi novel is read alongside contemporary ecocritical theory with a focus on issues of vernacular cultures and knowledges versus ideas of cosmopolitan planetary citizenship. Reflections are made about the profound nature of the concept of borders: cultural, temporal, informational, geographical, political, in the event of massive catastrophes. The article investigates how Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’ and Ursula Heise’s ‘eco-cosmopolitanism’ are played out in a novel, and how the novel in turn poses important questions for ecocritical theory. Thus, the interplay between ecocritical literary theory, on the one hand, and literature, on the other, is highlighted. What can dystopia make visible in contemporary theory?

Genre Nuances: “Finding the Right Tool for the Job” in Young Adult Literature

474 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) Broderick writes a long-winded description of the “Miracle of the Sun” at Fátima in 1917, which he suggests is “undeniably a UFO” (207). Broderick asserts the veracity of the event by observing, “Needless to say, this erratic celestial object was not the sun.... or was it a contagious hallucination” (208). He then goes on to discuss the “Fátima UFOs” (209) as though his readers have accepted his argument without any additional evidence that they are timetravelling and/or extraterrestrial vessels. Granted, reading a book about time travel presented “as entertainment, as speculation” (14) should be undertaken with an open mind and with suspension of disbelief, but skeptical readers may find this assertion (among many others in this chapter) a bit hard to swallow. Furthermore, and once again, this section of the book has very little to do with the other two. All of the literature Broderick discusses in the second portion of the volume seems forgotten. Indeed, this final section on UFO sightings feels out of place as a conclusion to a book about time-travel science fiction. Despite its structural problems, there are positives in this work. As mentioned above, the first section gives a readable explanation of the scientific theories behind time-travel narratives, making technical concepts accessible to lay readers; and the second section provides an enjoyable overview of many of the most thought-provoking and classic works in the subgenre. The anthologylike structure of the work should appeal both to seasoned readers of sf wanting to revisit some of their favorite stories as well as newcomers looking for suggestions of what to read. Most of all, The Time Machine Hypothesis captures the wonder that so many readers of sf feel when they first learn that scientists in the real world actually do study the possibility of time travel and that there may be something to these fantastic stories after all.—James Hamby, Middle Tennessee State University Genre Nuances: “Finding the Right Tool for the Job” in Young Adult Literature. Joseph W. Campbell. The Order and the Other: Young Adult Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction. Jackson, MI: UP of Mississippi, 2019. viii+191 pp. $30 pbk. While the inclusion of sf texts in both secondary and tertiary curricula has increased since the emergence of sf into academia in the mid-twentieth century, the use of sf and other speculative genres in classrooms is still largely undertheorized . Even more neglected is focused work on young adult science fiction (YASF), as attention is more commonly given to texts written for adults but read by youth on the rare occasions that speculative genres are explored pedagogically. Compoundingthe problem, dystopian fiction for young adults has dominated the young adult (YA) market for the first two decades of this century, but still remains sorely under-explored in educational research. In light of this, Joseph W. Campbell’s study makes an important contribution both to YASF and YA dystopian literature, placing pedagogy at the center of a nuanced examination of YA fiction, genre, and the critical potential of YASF and YA dystopian literature as catalysts for social critique and change in educational spaces. Writing for critics, librarians, and educators alike, Campbell offers a framework for text selection when working with youth, including a thoughtful 475 BOOKS IN REVIEW navigation of genre and a plethora of fictional and practice-based examples that help him to challenge common approaches to the teaching of YA fiction and to offer purposeful alternatives. In his introduction, Campbell begins to unpack the conflated treatment of YASF and YA dystopian literature, asserting that part of the challenge with teaching these texts comes from the notion that dystopia is a subgenre of sf. He views genre as a tool towards social critique, and he argues that sf and dystopia do different things, in particular in terms of “othering” (sf) and power (dystopia). To misclassify or merge texts in these genres undermines their critical potential, particularly as teaching tools for adolescents, given how these genres contribute to processes of subject formation. Attentive to the history of both genres, Campbell positions a thoughtful consideration of genre and the distinct contributions of these genres...

Genre Nuances: “Finding the Right Tool for the Job” in Young Adult Literature

474 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) Broderick writes a long-winded description of the “Miracle of the Sun” at Fátima in 1917, which he suggests is “undeniably a UFO” (207). Broderick asserts the veracity of the event by observing, “Needless to say, this erratic celestial object was not the sun.... or was it a contagious hallucination” (208). He then goes on to discuss the “Fátima UFOs” (209) as though his readers have accepted his argument without any additional evidence that they are timetravelling and/or extraterrestrial vessels. Granted, reading a book about time travel presented “as entertainment, as speculation” (14) should be undertaken with an open mind and with suspension of disbelief, but skeptical readers may find this assertion (among many others in this chapter) a bit hard to swallow. Furthermore, and once again, this section of the book has very little to do with the other two. All of the literature Broderick discusses in the second portion of the volume seems forgotten. Indeed, this final section on UFO sightings feels out of place as a conclusion to a book about time-travel science fiction. Despite its structural problems, there are positives in this work. As mentioned above, the first section gives a readable explanation of the scientific theories behind time-travel narratives, making technical concepts accessible to lay readers; and the second section provides an enjoyable overview of many of the most thought-provoking and classic works in the subgenre. The anthologylike structure of the work should appeal both to seasoned readers of sf wanting to revisit some of their favorite stories as well as newcomers looking for suggestions of what to read. Most of all, The Time Machine Hypothesis captures the wonder that so many readers of sf feel when they first learn that scientists in the real world actually do study the possibility of time travel and that there may be something to these fantastic stories after all.—James Hamby, Middle Tennessee State University Genre Nuances: “Finding the Right Tool for the Job” in Young Adult Literature. Joseph W. Campbell. The Order and the Other: Young Adult Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction. Jackson, MI: UP of Mississippi, 2019. viii+191 pp. $30 pbk. While the inclusion of sf texts in both secondary and tertiary curricula has increased since the emergence of sf into academia in the mid-twentieth century, the use of sf and other speculative genres in classrooms is still largely undertheorized . Even more neglected is focused work on young adult science fiction (YASF), as attention is more commonly given to texts written for adults but read by youth on the rare occasions that speculative genres are explored pedagogically. Compoundingthe problem, dystopian fiction for young adults has dominated the young adult (YA) market for the first two decades of this century, but still remains sorely under-explored in educational research. In light of this, Joseph W. Campbell’s study makes an important contribution both to YASF and YA dystopian literature, placing pedagogy at the center of a nuanced examination of YA fiction, genre, and the critical potential of YASF and YA dystopian literature as catalysts for social critique and change in educational spaces. Writing for critics, librarians, and educators alike, Campbell offers a framework for text selection when working with youth, including a thoughtful 475 BOOKS IN REVIEW navigation of genre and a plethora of fictional and practice-based examples that help him to challenge common approaches to the teaching of YA fiction and to offer purposeful alternatives. In his introduction, Campbell begins to unpack the conflated treatment of YASF and YA dystopian literature, asserting that part of the challenge with teaching these texts comes from the notion that dystopia is a subgenre of sf. He views genre as a tool towards social critique, and he argues that sf and dystopia do different things, in particular in terms of “othering” (sf) and power (dystopia). To misclassify or merge texts in these genres undermines their critical potential, particularly as teaching tools for adolescents, given how these genres contribute to processes of subject formation. Attentive to the history of both genres, Campbell positions a thoughtful consideration of genre and the distinct contributions of these genres...

Call for Articles: Ready Reader One: The Stories We Tell About, With, and Around Videogames

157 NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States on 22 April 1970. It now mobilizes citizens and communities worldwide, representing the first massive expression of public concern with the ecological sustainability of our planet and launching the modern global environmental movement. As much of the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020, our symposium, “(Re)thinking Earth,” aims to bring together plural perspectives under the collaborative interdisciplinary model of the environmental humanities. We invite papers on a range of topics that may include nature writing over time and space, global voices in ecopoetics, affect and ecocriticism, climate change in contemporary fiction, reimagined pastoral landscapes, space and scale in environmental writing, agro-ecological storytelling, the anthropocene, representations of environmental science in literature and film, the climate change crisis in visual culture, ecomedia and environmental science, climate change in utopian and dystopian literature, postcolonial and indigenous representations of environmental collapses, sf/fantasy and environmental crises, film and televisual representations of climate change, environmental ethics, and environmental education/literacy. Submit a 250-word abstract in English or Portuguese by 15 March 2020, accompanied by a brief bio-note. Letters of acceptance will be sent no later than the end of March. Send inquiries and abstracts to Teresa Botelho at and to Isabel Oliveira Martins at . .—Teresa Botelho and Isabel Oliveira Martins, National Library of Portugal, Lisbon Call for Articles: Ready Reader One: The Stories We Tell About, With, and Around Videogames. Videogames are a powerful storytelling medium, but what are the stories we tell about videogames, with videogames, around videogames? While there is an extensive body of scholarship on how videogames create worlds, construct characters, and explore themes, there has been almost no scholarship on the representation of videogames in literary texts. Yet the study of the stories we tell about videogames, with videogames, and around videogames can shed new light on how conceptions of character, space, time, the body, and identity are being reshaped by new forms of play, playable media, algorithmic systems, surveillance culture, and social media. We seek essays by scholars interested in establishing the foundations for the study of this fascinating but underappreciated body of literature. The essays will appear in an anthology that we are calling “Ready Reader One: The Stories We Tell About, With, and Around Videogames.” We are primarily interested in scholarly work on written literatures: short stories, novels, poetry, autobiography, creative nonfiction, rap lyrics, fan fiction, and graphic fiction. While we are less interested in essays on cinematic and televisual representations, we welcome exceptional proposals in this vein. Possible topics include analyses of individual texts whose focus is videogames, videogame players, or videogame culture; the representation of videogames, videogame players, or videogame culture in texts that are not “about” videogames per se but feature them in some significant fashion; and comparative analyses of texts 158 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) that focus on a specific genre of videogame, such as MMORPGs, virtual worlds, fighting games, etc. Send abstracts of 300-700 words to Dr. Megan Amber Condis and Dr. Mike Sell at by 31 March 2020. .—Megan Amber Condis, Texas Tech, and Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania SFRA Awards Renamed. After the votes were cast and tallied, the SFRA formally changed the names of two of its awards. The award formerly known as the Pilgrim Award will hereafter be known as the SFRA Award for Lifetime Contributions to SF Scholarship; the award formerly known as the Pioneer Award will hereafter be known as the SFRA Innovative Research Award. The former names remain on the website so that any past recipients can still be found using either the old or the new monikers. Full information on the awards, their description, recipients, and award committees can be found on our website in the pages under the Awards tab. I want to thank SFRA members for beginning this debate, for suggesting alternate names, and for voting. The forum, now closed for further discussion, remains posted on the site, so that members (current, past, and future), can retrace the considerations that led to the change.—Keren Omry, President, Science Fiction Research Association Call for Essays: Hélice. An online...

(Re)Thinking Earth: From Representations of Nature to Climate Change Fiction, 22-23 April 2020 in the National Library of Portugal, Lisbon

156 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) The Senses of Science Fiction: Visions, Sounds, Spaces Conference. On 5-7 December 2019, the Speculative Texts and Media Research Group, based at the University of Warsaw’s American Studies Center and headed by Pawe³ Frelik, held its first international conference. “Senses of Science Fiction: Visions, Sounds, Spaces” began with a Thursday evening screening of Dead Slow Ahead (Mauro Herce, 2015) that was introduced by Mark Bould. It continued on Friday and Saturday, offering eighteen sessions and two keynote lectures devoted to aesthetics and sense perception in a variety of works of sf (understood broadly). Taking place at a similar time of the year as 2018’s “Worlding SF” conference in Graz, “Senses” reunited many of the last year’s participants and offered another proof that early December is a good time for a midsize sf-related scholarly event. The topic proved specific enough to allow for a clear thematic consistency but also invited a broad range of perspectives. The presentations addressed the call to reclaim the place of the sensory in science-fiction cultures and called attention to the specificity of sf aesthetics across different media and lesser acknowledged sense perceptions. The presentations engaged with sight and sound but also other senses, including smell, touch, and taste. Topics included investigations of the aesthetic overlap between science fiction in representations of Mars and narratives of virality, the futurity of contemporary music videos, the role of aesthetics in representing asexuality, the connection between the culture of drug use and the development of sf literature, Lo-Fi Sci-Fi aesthetics in contemporary Brazilian cinema, and a cross-media aesthetic analysis of adaptations of The Handmaid’s Tale. Of note was a stream of panels entitled “Ab-Sense: Sensation, Sense-Making, and the Absent in Science Fiction,” co-organized with the London Science Fiction Research Community and headed by Francis Gene-Rowe. The panels successfully managed to open up the topic of the conference even further by exploring various homonyms of “sense” while still staying close to the tenor of the event. Both keynote lectures were highlights. Coming from two distinct sensibilities and offering very different theoretical perspectives, both managed perfectly to take advantage of the keynote format. Amy Butt’s talk about the spaces of science fiction was richly rooted in her experience as an architect and impressive in its textual scope, theoretical relevance, and—last but not least—the beautiful economy of her presentation slides. Erik Steinskog’s appeal to conceptualize science-fictionality in aural rather than visual terms, illustrated by a number of examples ranging from Sun Ra to CopperWire’s Earthbound and clipping’s Splendor and Misery, to Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer, was passionate, intellectually stimulating, and ambitious in its aim to splice together various theoretical perspectives. Largely due to the high quality of the contributions, the conference proved to be informative, inspiring, and aesthetically pleasing. A full program of the event is available at .—Filip Boratyn, University of Warsaw, Poland (Re)Thinking Earth: From Representations of Nature to Climate Change Fiction, 22-23 April 2020 in the National Library of Portugal, Lisbon. 157 NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States on 22 April 1970. It now mobilizes citizens and communities worldwide, representing the first massive expression of public concern with the ecological sustainability of our planet and launching the modern global environmental movement. As much of the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020, our symposium, “(Re)thinking Earth,” aims to bring together plural perspectives under the collaborative interdisciplinary model of the environmental humanities. We invite papers on a range of topics that may include nature writing over time and space, global voices in ecopoetics, affect and ecocriticism, climate change in contemporary fiction, reimagined pastoral landscapes, space and scale in environmental writing, agro-ecological storytelling, the anthropocene, representations of environmental science in literature and film, the climate change crisis in visual culture, ecomedia and environmental science, climate change in utopian and dystopian literature, postcolonial and indigenous representations of environmental collapses, sf/fantasy and environmental crises, film and televisual representations of climate change, environmental ethics, and environmental education/literacy. Submit a 250-word...

Agency in The Hunger Games: Desire, Intent, and Action in the Novels by Kayla Ann

Reviewed by: Agency in The Hunger Games: Desire, Intent, and Action in the Novels by Kayla Ann Victoria Carrico (bio) Agency in The Hunger Games: Desire, Intent, and Action in the Novels. By Kayla Ann. McFarland, 2020. Few series have captured the world’s attention at the scale of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy. With the publication of the first book in 2008, an international obsession was born. The popularity of The Hunger Games spread like wildfire as young adult readers around the world soaked up the tragic, inspiring, hopeful tale, laughing, crying, and struggling alongside protagonist Katniss Everdeen as she fought for her life against the Capitol. For over a decade, scholars have investigated this popular series in depth, attempting to determine what has made the books so popular and what value they bring to the genre of dystopian literature. In Agency in The Hunger Games: Desire, Intent, and Action in the Novels, author Kayla Ann adds her voice to this scholarly discussion, focusing specifically on how characters utilize agency within the series. What separates this work from other analyses, beyond the specific attention to agency, is its target audience. While much analysis surrounding The Hunger Games is academic in nature, Ann writes for the everyday reader. “The purpose of this book,” she explains in the introduction, “is to build on previous scholarship with the direct intent of focusing the discussion on the evolution of personal agency as displayed by various characters in a way that is both enlightening and understandable for fellow Hunger Games enthusiasts” (3). The resulting text engages both scholars and fans, extending Hunger Games scholarship to include a broader audience. In refreshingly accessible language, this book delves into the complex topic of agency, defined in this context as “the individual’s ability to perform intentional actions based on his or her own beliefs and desires,” by systematically analyzing when, how, and to what extent major and minor characters successfully (or unsuccessfully) exercise agency within the trilogy (7). Ann also investigates how morality, power, and sacrifice influence a character’s ability to act as an independent agent. Throughout this investigation, she grapples with questions such as: “Can an individual truly retain agency if their actions are controlled by another?”; “Is the act of killing moral if it is self-defense?”; “Must agency be vocalized?”; and “Is shared agency more powerful than individual agency?” (10, 11, 12). In answering these questions, Ann encourages readers to think more critically about the motives, influences, and consequences surrounding characters’ actions. While not explicitly divided into major sections, readers will find that the first three chapters are dedicated to the main protagonist, Katniss Ever-deen, while later chapters investigate secondary and tertiary characters including Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, Cinna, Haymitch Abernathy, [End Page 413] Primrose Everdeen, Finnick Odair, Mags, Johanna Mason, and Beetee Latier. Ann uses each of these characters to explore a different facet of agency, revealing the depth and complexity of the topic. The first three chapters investigate agency through its connection to the human body, morality, and trauma, respectively. Within these pages, Ann suggests that Katniss’s agency is intricately linked to control over her own physical body, her adherence to a moral code, and her ability to confront and overcome trauma. One particularly interesting question Ann explores in chapters 1 and 3 is whether or not suicide constitutes agency. She compares two instances in which Katniss considers suicide within the trilogy, ultimately suggesting that the connection between suicide and agency depends on the motivation, logical reasoning, and situational context surrounding the act. This frank discussion, and many others within the first three chapters, illustrate Katniss’s agency as a fluid construct, something she constantly and cyclically fights for, gains, loses, and reclaims. This illustration of agency being consistently attainable offers readers a sense of hope, showing that they, too, have the ability to continuously strive towards personal agency. Chapters 4 and 5 shift the focus away from Katniss, toward the two characters closest to her: Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne. Within these chapters, Ann thoughtfully analyzes each character’s identity, painting Peeta as a Messianic character whose actions are rooted in self-sacrifice and Gale as...

Dystopia as an anticipation of reality. Analysis of the resonances of literary dystopias in Byung-Chul's philosophy

In this article, we propose to show the different resonances that exist between the dystopian literature works Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell and the philosophy of Byung-Chul Han. We want to highlight how, in both the dystopian works and Han's philosophy, it is possible to anticipate and question, simultaneously, the ethical and political reality. In both of the literary works analyzed we can appreciate certain anticipation of problems of current times, and their power to philosophically question the established order. We put these anticipations in dialogue with the ideas of the Korean philosopher, specifically with the ideas disseminated in his works The Burnout Society, The Transparency Society and Psychopolitics; we highlight in these works his lucid diagnosis of current society, with emphasis on the problems of the subject and his freedom in the current economic model. Finally, show how, from Byung-Chul Han's interpretation of the mentioned dystopias and other literary works, there is a proposal for a way out of the economic model that constrains the freedom of the subject. The proposal we infer from Han's work is based on the denial of action and speech to confront the dominant model and generate a discourse that can break with homogeneity.

Jagged Little Pill

Jagged Little Pill Phoebe Wagner (bio) and Brontë Wieland (bio) Oval Elvia Wilk Soft Skull Press www.softskull.com/dd-product/oval/ 352 Pages; Print, $16.95 Set in a near-future Berlin, Elvia Wilke’s Oval follows partners Anja and Louis as they navigate life under greenwashed turbocapitalism. The pair live on the Berg: an artificial mountain in Berlin, built by Finster Corp. as ground zero for their experiments in smart houses and sustainable urban living, experiments that seem to go sideways from the very start. When Louis returns from the United States after his mother’s funeral, Anja expects him to be grieving in a way she can understand, but instead he seeks normality, feigns unaffectedness, and dives back into his work as an artistic consultant for Basquiatt, a large nonprofit. Anja, once employed by the omnipresent and looming Finster Corp. as a researcher studying cartilage for biological homes, is sacked from her research division and rehired (along with her lab partner Michel) as a consultant — an indefinite, formless job that she suspects was created to pay for her silence on the suspiciously abrupt death of her research project. Communication continues to deteriorate between Anja and Louis, and their home on the Berg becomes increasingly unlivable until eventually the two separate; Anja stays with her friends (soon to be evicted by Finster), while Louis sleeps at his office, nose to the grindstone on a secret project. This secret project is the titular Oval, a newly developed drug that temporarily rewires one’s brain so that the act of giving induces intense pleasure. Louis wants to release Oval to the public [End Page 12] (the lower middle class particularly) in order to create a culture of giving, which he suspects will, among other things, fix the rampant houselessness in Berlin and ultimately save humanity from itself. Instead, to no reader’s surprise, the drug induces those who take it to give wantonly, without regard for need. Eventually, the drug’s popularity leads to a days-long rager in the heart of the city, and the party starts a blaze that burns Berlin to its foundations, which Anja only barely notices because she has isolated herself on the Berg and discovered that all of the mountain’s livability issues were part of Finster’s planned obsolescence scheme all along. The world these characters inhabit is one in which climate destabilization has made the weather so unpredictable that some have begun to suspect that the government’s wholly inaccurate meteorological reports are an elaborate lie meant to supersede reality. It’s a world in which the only work for artists is corporate-contracted consultant work, and those who fail to meet the terms of their agency’s contracts have their disembodied, shrunken heads put on display at lavish parties. It’s a world in which companies and non-profits trip over themselves to see who can make the most money off of “sustainability,” without fundamentally altering the consumption-dependent capitalist business model. The setting is clearly dystopic, but it is also not inconceivable. In fact, it’s familiar. Houselessness has spiked; the seasons are increasingly unrecognizable; the middle class averts their eyes from what’s below them and parties away the weekends on designer drugs; well-meaning individuals believe they can save the world from within powerful global systems invested in the status quo and find themselves disarmed, disinterested, or burnt out; and multinational businesses are still pumping out endless, resource-heavy consumer goods meant to be thrown away while claiming to be environmentally friendly. In Wilk’s near future Berlin, perhaps the scale of exploitation and control has grown, but the systems are very much the same, omnipresent in our contemporary lives. But despite this often-accurate portrayal of the path global capitalism is forcing us down, Oval ultimately offers little to the wider field of dystopian literature, neither illuminating a lurking threat to the prosperity of human and non-human life and liberty, nor portraying any methods of active resistance to oppressive power structures. Especially in environmental dystopias, these considerations are crucial. Throughout the novel, Wilk attempts to balance the story’s literary aspects — namely the evolving dynamics...

BİR KENT DİSTOPYASI OLARAK TAHSİN YÜCEL’İN GÖKDELEN’İ VE ROMANIN DİSTOPYA EDEBİYATI İÇİNDEKİ YERİ

Gökdelen, Türk edebiyatında distopya türünün önemli örneklerinden biridir. Tahsin Yücel, 2073 yılında geçen romanında gökdelenlerin tek tip mimarisiyle oluşturulmuş, tarihin yok edildiği, yoksulların sınırların dışına sürüldüğü bir kent hayal etmiştir. Gökdelen’in kenti insanlar arası eşitliğin ortadan kalktığı, adaletin erozyona uğradığı, küreselleşmenin etkisiyle her şeyin özelleştirildiği bir dünyanın sonucudur. Bu makalede distopya türünün başlıca eserleri de göz önünde bulundurularak, Gökdelen romanının distopya kimliğini hangi unsurların oluşturduğu, geleceğin dünyasında bizi nasıl bir kentin beklediği, romanın distopya edebiyatı içindeki konumu incelenecektir. Makale, ütopya türünün başlangıcının, başlıca eserlerinin, türün 20. yüzyılın başı itibariyle distopya türüne evirilişinin anlatılmasıyla başlar. 2073’ün dünyası genel hatlarıyla tasvir edilerek okuyucunun zamanı ve şartları anlamasına yardımcı olunur.İnceleme kısmında ise romanın kent distopyası kimliğine odaklanılmıştır. Yazarın kent dokusunu oluştururken ilham aldığı örnekler ve düşünürlerin fikirleri belirtilmiştir. Bu örnekler ve fikirler ışığında Gökdelen’in kenti değerlendirilir. İncelemenin diğer kısımlarında kentin varlığının ayrılmaz bir parçası olan hukuk, adalet, ekonomi, özgürlük, küreselleşme kavramları ve insan unsuru ortaya konulmuştur.

Non-Linear Modes of Narrative in the Disruption of Time and Genre in Ambelin Kwaymullina’s <em>The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</em>

Non-Linear Modes of Narrative in the Disruption of Time and Genre in Ambelin Kwaymullina’s <em>The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</em>

Dystopian literature and the sociological imagination

This article argues that sociologists have much to gain from a fuller engagement with dystopian literature. This is because (i) the speculation in dystopian literature tends to be more grounded in empirical social reality than in the case of utopian literature, and (ii) the literary conventions of the dystopia more readily illustrate the relationship between the inner life of the individual and the greater whole of social-historical reality. These conventional features mean dystopian literature is especially attuned to how historically-conditioned social forces shape the inner life and personal experience of the individual, and how acts of individuals can, in turn, shape the social structures in which they are situated. In other words, dystopian literature is a potent exercise of what C. Wright Mills famously termed ‘the sociological imagination’.