Showing papers on "Dystopia published in 1983"

No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

Abstract: Writers have created fictions of social perfection at least since Plato s "Republic. "Sir Thomas More gave this thread of intellectual history a name when he called his contribution to it "Utopia, "Greek for "no" "place."With each subsequent author cognizant of his predecessors and subject to altered real-world conditions which suggest ever-new causes for hope and alarm, no place changed. The fourteen essays presented in this book critically assess man s fascination with and seeking for no place. In discussing these central fictions, the contributors see no place from diverse perspectives: the sociological, the psychological, the political, the aesthetic. In revealing the roots of these works, the contributors cast back along the whole length of utopian thought. Each essay stands alone; together, the essays make clear what no place means today. While it may be true that no place has always seemed elsewhere or elsewhen, in fact all utopian fiction whirls contemporary actors through a costume dance no place else but here. from the PrefaceThe contributors are Eric S. Rabkin, B. G. Knepper, Thomas J. Remington, Gorman Beauchamp, William Matter, Ken Davis, Kenneth M. Roemer, William Steinhoff, Howard Segal, Jack Zipes, Kathleen Woodward, Merritt Abrash, and James W. Bittner."

The Utopian vision : seven essays on the quincentennial of Sir Thomas More

Abstract: Since the paradisal yearnings of ancient Sumeria, the concept of utopia has persisted as a symbol of hope. These essays provide a broad spread of perspectives on the ways the utopian vision has appeared, ranging from the "heavenly garden" of the ancient Near East, through Sir Thomas More's Utopia and the idealized societies of feminist science fiction, to the utopian/dystopian expressions of Kurt Vonnegut. The Utopian Vision is enhanced by a fully annotated bibliography of more than 500 works by utopian authors or on aspects of utopia. Originally published in 1983.

The Future in the Classroom Today.

Abstract: If only half the predictions for 1984 come true, what do we have to look forward to? That question is the focus of our first day's discussion in Alternative Societies, a ten-week senior English course Answers vary from nilhistic ("We're all going to be blown up, so what does it matter?") to simplistic ("I'm going to get married and live in the same way my folks do"), to optimistic ("If we work together, the world can be in peace with resources for all") No matter what the answers, students agree we all have the future in common, and that bond carries us though out study of utopian and dystopian novels, as we try to discover what we want, what we can change, what we must fight, and what we must endure to be ready for the future The dystopias are the most compelling reading, not only for their horrible views of the future but because the main characters are always cultural deviates, fighting for their beliefs against a repressive government Montag (Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451), Equality 521 (Rand's Anthem), John Savage (Huxley's Brave New World), Winston Smith (Orwell's 1984), and Chip (Levin's This Perfect Day) begin alone, against overwhelming odds, to try to understand their individual longings in a hostile environment These novels all provide exciting and scary reading We also do Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, perhaps the most frightening because the nuclear war described could happen