Showing papers on "Dystopia published in 2021"
Book•
14 Dec 2021
TL;DR: The History of Sir George Ellison as mentioned in this paper is an important novel, both utopian and dystopian, which addresses issues of slavery, marriage, education, law and social justice, class pretensions, and the position of women in society.
Abstract: "The History of Sir George Ellison" (1766) is an important novel, both utopian and dystopian. Sir George, a man of benevolence, follows the pattern of the female utopia set forth in Scott's first novel, "A Description of Millenium Hall" (1762). In this sequel, Scott addresses issues of slavery, marriage, education, law and social justice, class pretensions, and the position of women in society, consistently emphasizing the importance, for both genders and all classes and ages, of devoting one's life to meaningful work. Although she adopted a gradualist approach to reform, Scott's uncompromising revelation of the corruption of English society in her day is clear-sighted, arresting, and hard-hitting.
31 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored global journalistic discussions of deepfake applications (audiovisual manipulating applications based on artificial intelligence (AI)) to understand the narratives constructed by the authors, and found that the narratives are constructed by a group of individuals.
Abstract: This study explores global journalistic discussions of deepfake applications (audiovisual manipulating applications based on artificial intelligence (AI)) to understand the narratives constructed t...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an interview with Professor James Fitchett (University of Leicester) on the idea of dystopia and dystopic tendencies in the historical moment of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Abstract: We present an invited interview with Professor James Fitchett (University of Leicester) on the idea of dystopia and dystopic tendencies in the historical moment of the Covid-19 pandemic. 1 1 The di...
13 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a stranger comes to town and opens a shop wherein any inhabitant can find exactly the thing s/he desires most, in exchange for playing "pranks" that c...
Abstract: In Stephen King’s horror novel Needful Things, a stranger comes to town and opens a shop wherein any inhabitant can find exactly the thing s/he desires most, in exchange for playing “pranks” that c...
12 citations
15 Jan 2021
TL;DR: The authors argue that the predominantly dystopian outlook of the past century or so marked a move away from former views on human progress and that current dystopianism betrays the view that the human species as such is an impediment to harmonious life on Earth.
Abstract: A product of Modernity, utopian and dystopian thought has always hinged upon an assessment as to whether humanity would be able to fulfil the promise of socio-economic, political and techno-scientific progress. In this paper, I argue that the predominantly dystopian outlook of the past century or so marked a move away from former views on human progress. Rather than commenting on humanity’s inability to build a better society, current dystopianism betrays the view that the human species as such is an impediment to harmonious life on Earth. I discuss the shift from utopia to dystopia (and back) as a result of regarding humans as a force that does more harm than good, and I consider the possibility of human extinction within the framework of dystopian and utopian visions. The final section of the chapter turns to Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy as a fictional example that plays out the prospect of a world in which humans have all but become extinct.
9 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the critical interplay among Indigenous resurgence, settler colonialism, and the politics of environmental justice, and critical questions need to be asked: How are Indigenous poli c...
Abstract: This article examines the critical interplay among Indigenous resurgence, settler colonialism, and the politics of environmental justice. Critical questions need to be asked: How are Indigenous pol...
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the relationship between the geography of Utopia and the insularity and confinement of women as dominated "matrixial entities" which is further reinforced by utopian cartography.
Abstract: Following European exploration of the Atlantic, origin myths could now be projected onto a possible future and ‘undiscovered’ lands. Often the island proved the most suitable design for these projections to ensure the ‘perfection’ of the community and avoidance of corruptive external influences. These novel conceptualisations envisaged new social constructs to explain human nature, however, they continued to be overtly patriarchal. Gender essentialism and colonisation of the female body was an integral part of reproducing traditional utopian imaginings. Thomas More’s Utopia exemplifies this archetypal gendered conceptualisation of the ideal island society where female education serves to reinforce patriarchal structures and women are essentialised in terms of their fertility. This paper addresses the relationship between the geography of Utopia and the insularity and confinement of women as dominated ‘matrixial entities’ which is further reinforced by utopian cartography. In this context, I assert that the process of colonisation and islanding unsettles the immutability of these patriarchal constructs and exposes the dystopian origins of Utopia.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a series of imaginary "utopian" islands of the Early Modern period, including Utopia, New Atlantis, The Isle of Pines and the island of Robinson Crusoe, to understand how these writers used and depicted "utopia" to reflect political, religious and social mores of the time.
Abstract: Interest in islands grew rapidly during the Early Modern period as many explorers, merchants, monarchs and political commentators perceived islands as earthly paradises or magical loci of extreme riches. This paper presents an alternative strand of the period's ‘islomania’, where the newly discovered islands were imagined as loci of wilderness: empty lands that human ingenuity and hard work could be ‘improved’ into a utopia. Triumphal narratives of conquering nature were based on the newfound optimism inspired by fifteenth century humanism and the tenets of Early Modern natural philosophy. However, processes of ‘improvement’ cannot be thought of as apolitical or dislocated as they are often embedded in the colonialist narratives of the time. By examining a series of imaginary ‘utopian’ islands of the Early Modern period, including Utopia, New Atlantis, The Isle of Pines and the island of Robinson Crusoe, this paper dismantles binary conceptions of Early Modern mythical islands as paradise/hell, utopia/dystopia to a more nuanced understanding of how these writers utilised and depicted ‘utopia’ to reflect political, religious and social mores of the time.
8 citations
TL;DR: The idea that humans should abandon their individuality and use technology to bind themselves together into a hivemind society seems both farfetched and frightening, something that is redolent of the worst dystopias from science fiction as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The idea that humans should abandon their individuality and use technology to bind themselves together into hivemind societies seems both farfetched and frightening – something that is redolent of the worst dystopias from science fiction. In this article, we argue that these common reactions to the ideal of a hivemind society are mistaken. The idea that humans could form hiveminds is sufficiently plausible for its axiological consequences to be taken seriously. Furthermore, far from being a dystopian nightmare, the hivemind society could be desirable and could enable a form of sentient flourishing. Consequently, we should not be so quick to deny it. We provide two arguments in support of this claim – the axiological openness argument and the desirability argument – and then defend it against three major objections.
7 citations
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TL;DR: Vieira as discussed by the authors argues against the feasibility of considering the world without us in utopian terms, and identifies three tacit assumptions in utopian interpretations of our disappearance: they take for granted that prospects of human extinction and post-apocalyptic themes are of the same kind; and remain committed to an anthropocentric view in assuming that we are the ones to attribute meaning even to the world defined by our absence.
Abstract: As the prospect of self-authored human extinction increasingly appears as a plausible scenario of human futures, a growing number of efforts aim at comprehending it as the prospect of the world without us. Patricia Vieira convincingly shows in her essay on utopia and dystopia in the Anthropocene that utopianism has become a prominent interpretive strategy to render the possibility of human extinction meaningful. This brief reflection argues against the feasibility of considering the world without us in utopian terms. It identifies three tacit assumptions in utopian interpretations of our disappearance: they (1) take for granted that prospects of human extinction and post-apocalyptic themes are of the same kind; (2) presume that the biological character of human extinction needs no special attention when situating it with the social character of utopian thinking; and (3) remain committed to an anthropocentric view in assuming that we are the ones to attribute meaning even to the world defined by our absence. In challenging these assumptions, the essay develops three theses on the relation of utopia and the prospect of the world without us.
7 citations
01 Aug 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the potential for dystopia attending population and sustainability issues in the outside world is appraised, and two possible global failure modes are examined, one contained within the human sphere involving the future of capital and labour, and an external one founded in the familiar problematics of the human-environment nexus.
Abstract: 'The City of Grace: An Urban Manifesto' (Wadley, 2020) models an ecotech settlement, aiming to achieve economic and social sustainability over a substantial period. The City is intended to be anti-dystopian and non-exclusive, with the possibility of replication in receptive settings. In this rejoinder to the book, the potential for dystopia attending population and sustainability issues in the outside world is appraised. Foundations are established in general systems, complexity and chaos theories, and an interpretation of procedural and substantive rationality. Two possible global failure modes are examined, one contained within the human sphere involving the future of capital and labour, and an external one founded in the familiar problematics of the human-environment nexus. Dilatory responses in advanced societies to these dilemmas are outlined. The subsequent prognosis regarding population and sustainability co-opts a meta-theory from environmental management to assess the viability of possible counterstrategies to dystopia although, in conclusion, its existence is instantiated.
TL;DR: The Solarpunk Manifesto as mentioned in this paper has been consolidated as a space of counter-cultural hope to allow us to go beyond social-ecological injustices and growing epistemic and ontological violence.
Abstract: The purpose of this text is to reflect on the ways that science fiction allows criticism on the modern technology path. Imagination has allowed us to think of some ends of the world, but it has been a privileged space. Creating other possible futures for our relationship with energy is essential. Corporate renewable energy projects are emerging in corners of the planet where green capitalism has not yet reached. In this way, the creation of alternatives to centralized and corporate models of energy generation, distribution and consumption must go through new potentialities of inhabiting new possible futures. Science fiction is a literature genre that has inspired generations of people assembling art and techno-science as well as dystopia. Solarpunk has been consolidated as a space of counter-cultural hope to allow us to go beyond social-ecological injustices and growing epistemic and ontological violence. This genre is derived from other currents such as Cyberpunk, Steampunk and Dieselpunk, elucidating another relationship between technology, society and nature, nourished in turn by climate sci-fi, Indigenous and Afro-futurist science fiction. In this sense, a concept revision is made in three spheres: i) historical, based on its digital origins; ii) literary, based on the edited anthologies and iii) academic, of the reflections that it has raised. Finally, the Solarpunk Manifesto, revealed at the beginning of 2020, is shared in order to continue its co-creation.
TL;DR: A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relatively unexceptional protagonists in dystopian scenarios, thereby shifting the conventional focus of the focus of science fiction.
Abstract: A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relatively unexceptional protagonists in dystopian scenarios, thereby shifting the conventional focus of the...
TL;DR: For the five hundred years since Thomas More first depicted the island of Utopia, the portrayal of an ideal social system has intrigued generations of authors as discussed by the authors, and the search for utopia started from the Classical Age, More invented the genre and hundreds of utopian thinkers followed in his footsteps trying to predict how life would unfold and provide a detailed description of a nonideal future society.
Abstract: For the five hundred years since Thomas More first depicted the island of Utopia, the portrayal of an ideal social system has intrigued generations of authors. The concept served a double purpose: it applied to an ideal place (eutopia) but also an imaginary, unrealizable one (utopia). Although the search for utopia started from the Classical Age, More invented the genre and hundreds of utopian thinkers followed in his footsteps trying to predict how life would unfold and provide a detailed description of an ideal (or nonideal) future society. From H. G. Wells and Aldous Huxley to Arthur C. Clarke and Ursula Le Guin, successful and popular authors showed a deep concern for future living and working conditions. If the past is another country, the growing literature of utopian thought suggests that the future can be a whole continent. Several undiscovered countries lay in waiting and intellectual historians have often been fascinated by the dense explorations of the utopian writers.
TL;DR: The authors examines two recent examples of feminist dystopias: Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God (2017) and Leni Zumas's Red Clocks (2018).
Abstract: This article examines two recent examples of feminist dystopias: Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God (2017) and Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks (2018). True to their genre, these novels act as w...
TL;DR: The authors consider how diffuse visions of "environmental apocalypse" are spun through narratives constructions of the desert as sites of utopia and dystopia, where humanity is simultaneously portrayed as meeting its most dire possibilities of collapse, but also places where hopeful futures might be tested out and extremes overcome in an era of climate catastrophe.
TL;DR: The authors argue that today's academy is a dystopia, and many scholars of color and international scholars face the daunting challenge of navigating neoliberal state institutions that are often built on legacies of racism, sexism, and classism.
Abstract: Today’s academy is a dystopia. Many scholars of color and international scholars face the daunting challenge of navigating neoliberal state institutions that are often built on legacies of racism, ...
TL;DR: The authors expose how a variety of contemporary Australian dystopias delve into a number of worrying global issues, thus making it clear that our contemporary world is already corroborating and bearing witness to a many of futuristic nightmares.
Abstract: The main aim of this Special Issue is to expose how a variety of contemporary Australian dystopias delve into a number of worrying global issues, thus making it clear that our contemporary world is already corroborating and bearing witness to a number of futuristic nightmares [...]
01 May 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the Covid-19 pandemic was interpreted within a Bondian framework, and the authors explored Fleming's fluctuating views on technology and his disillusionment with scientific work following the Second World War.
Abstract: This article explores Ian Fleming’s fluctuating views on technology and his disillusionment with scientific work following the Second World War. Focusing on the James Bond novels, in which Fleming nursed his fears of a post-Cold War, dystopian future, it configures Bond himself as a cypher for human agency in negotiating the technological changes of the twentieth century – a triumphant symbol of Fleming’s belief in the ingenuity of the individual. This article also reads the Cold War context of mutually assured technological destruction (in which Fleming set most of his novels) against the contemporary context of the Covid-19 pandemic, a biological threat of global proportions which is interpreted, here, within a Bondian framework.
15 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how Mary Shelley portrayed ecological awareness in her The Last Man and examine how increasing ecological destruction leads to post-apocalyptic visions in the works of Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee.
Abstract: Once hailed as the pinnacle of evolutionary progress, the human subject has more recently been under severe attack due to the destructive potential that has been unleashed by humans, especially in the last two hundred years. As a result, contemporary literature and art is replete with images of a utopia without humans. Many writers see humans, or rather human destructiveness, as the real plague on the planet and offer visions of utopia placed in the post-apocalyptic post-human era. Drawing on Patricia Vieira’s seminal article titled “Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of the Anthropocene”, I will first discuss how Mary Shelley portrayed ecological awareness in her The Last Man. I will then move on to examine how increasing ecological destruction leads to (post)-apocalyptic visions in the works of Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee. My aim in juxtaposing two contemporary writers with Mary Shelley is to show that despite their different socio-historical contexts, these women writers have produced works that can not only be read as visionary and cautionary tales but that also promote heightened ecological awareness as an antidote to destructive and – ultimately – self-destructive tendencies of humankind.
TL;DR: In this paper, an anthropological theory of praxis is proposed to account for multiple competing imaginations and how and why some become prevalent over others in daily life, in a dialectical process of reflection and action.
Abstract: Across the globe, we are seeing a popular shift of appeal from a liberal‐humanitarian imagination of the world, or even a communist‐socialist ideal, to one that is more conservative and often called ‘right‐wing populist’. In the ethnographic context analysed here, a utopian movement for revolutionary social change, led by Marx‐Lenin and Mao‐inspired Naxalite guerrillas, that once had a wide appeal in parts of India, is superseded by a more conservative utopian imagination of Hindutva forces. In exploring the Indian Maoist case, I suggest that dystopia is embedded within utopia. If those engaged in utopian social transformation seek to challenge prevailing ideology to transform people’s actions, it is equally possible for their utopian imagination to retreat into ritual that not only bears little relevance to most people but may also be potentially harmful and pave the way for other ideals to become prevalent. In analysing this Indian case, the paper suggests that we develop an anthropological theory of praxis, one that deals not only with how imaginations to change the world become realised in practice, but also accounts for multiple competing imaginations and how and why some become prevalent over others in daily life, in a dialectical process of reflection and action.
TL;DR: It is shown that any attempt to correct deviations from a hypothetical trajectory whose ultimate goal is the utopia, increasingly demands more work, including measures that lead to terror, which may even be absolute, leading to the horrible paradox that in seeking paradise hell is constructed.
Abstract: This study was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of the Spanish Government, under Project RTI2018-094653-B-C22.
TL;DR: The authors provide a captivating examination into bleak, futuristic societies, while simultaneously encouraging their audiences to draw comparisons between the fictional dystopia and real-world reality, and the real world.
Abstract: Critical dystopian narratives provide a captivating examination into bleak, futuristic societies, while simultaneously encouraging their audiences to draw comparisons between the fictional dystopia...
TL;DR: The authors examines how two recent novels, Ling Ma's Severance (2018) and Karen Thomson Walker's The Dreamers (2019), offer feminist refigurations of the genre Priscilla Wald has termed "the outbreak narrative." Shifting emphasis from the epidemiological quest plot that has tended to dominate this genre, both novels focus on everyday cultures and ethics of care, illustrating how patriarchal systems produce and perpetuate conditions of vulnerability.
Abstract: The coronavirus pandemic has prompted renewed scholarly and popular interest in epidemic fiction, from biomedical thrillers to dystopian tales of disease-desolated worlds. While fiction may cultivate our expectations about the probable paths of the pandemic, it also invites us to participate in the creative process of imagining alternative futures. This essay examines how two recent novels, Ling Ma's Severance (2018) and Karen Thomson Walker's The Dreamers (2019), offer feminist refigurations of the genre Priscilla Wald has termed "the outbreak narrative." Shifting emphasis from the epidemiological quest plot that has tended to dominate this genre, both novels focus on everyday cultures and ethics of care, illustrating how patriarchal systems produce and perpetuate conditions of vulnerability. In particular, pregnancy plots in both novels work to interrogate cultures of paternalism, raising key ethical questions about limitations and violations of the bodily autonomy. Illuminating, in spectacular and speculative fashion, how conditions of inequality and precarity are radically revealed and intensified by a public health crisis, novels like Severance and The Dreamers are essential tools for teaching about-and living through-the crisis of our pandemic present.
01 May 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how gender roles and the existence of women are reflected in the feminist dystopian narrative Blue Ticket by making use of Luce Irigaray's, Helene Cixous's and Michel Foucault's theories in which femininity, sex, gender roles, biological representation, and panopticon become prominent.
Abstract: Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket touches upon the issues of gender roles, femininity, motherhood as well as oppression, dystopian restrictions, the abandonment of free will and predetermined life. As a lottery is used in the narrative to determine women’s lives, the deconstruction of gender roles as well as a nightmarish system of oppression of women are thoroughly analysed in the novel. Since women’s writing and women’s issues have become quite relevant and topical today, Blue Ticket offers a deeper analysis and a horrible story about the aforementioned concepts. This paper aims to show how gender roles and the existence of women are reflected in Mackintosh’s feminist dystopian narrative Blue Ticket by making use of Luce Irigaray’s, Helene Cixous’s and Michel Foucault’s theories in which femininity, sex, gender roles, biological representation, and panopticon become prominent. Considering the fact that women’s writing and restrictions of gender roles go hand in hand in contemporary British fiction, this study brings out significant results about how Mackintosh evaluates those issues with a unique voice and what her female characters tell the readers about living a pre-determined life. In a world where women are given only two options, which are provided by pure chance in a lottery, of either having a baby or being used for the sexual pleasure of men, the conventional issues of femininity and gender roles are scrutinized with current patriarchal power relations and dystopian regimes.
08 Mar 2021
TL;DR: The 1994 elections had seen a near tectonic change in South Africa as mentioned in this paper and the long run minority White regime was replaced by a majority Black government of the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela.
Abstract: The 1994 elections had seen a near tectonic change in South Africa. The long run minority White regime was replaced by a majority Black government of the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela. He, along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, did a magnificent job of avoiding a bloodbath and keeping peace between the races. A new Constitution was accepted by 1996 which subscribed to lofty ideals. Yet, they turned sour before long. Aspirations ran ahead of hard realities. Utopia seems to have morphed into dystopia. Greed, prompted by past deprivation, appears to have made opportunists of several while others became blind ideologues. In no time, the country turned to be totally corrupt. This spectacular failure of the system is explained in this chapter.
TL;DR: In this paper, an emerging canon of post-millennial Indian dystopian fiction in English and the related themes of precarity and (im)purity is discussed. But, the authors focus on the postmillennial setting.
Abstract: This paper is interested in an emerging canon of post-millennial Indian dystopian fiction in English and the related themes of precarity and (im)purity. After introducing some recent novels and tex...
TL;DR: The Abyssal line as mentioned in this paper is used by de Sousa Santos as a powerful metaphor to describe our ambivalent world, a world divided into two territories; on the one hand, the Metropolitan side, where human beings live in a decent world and enjoy rights in a set of social relations and on the other hand the Colonial side where human persons are not considered human neither are they subjects of the most fundamental rights.
Abstract: Even if Hollywood is often represented as a liberal and progressive paradise, the liberal approach showed by the Hollywood star system is not present in the same proportion and degree in Hollywood blockbusters. Apart from some arguable contributions to the cause of minorities, in general, Hollywood tends to reinforce and perpetuate the establishment, the status quo and the structural causes leading to the Abyssal line and thus, it contributes to maintaining the social order. The Abyssal line (a mostly unknown and terrifying area of the ocean) is used by de Sousa Santos as a powerful metaphor to describe our ambivalent world, a world divided into two territories; on the one hand, the Metropolitan side, a world which is home to those human beings “fully human”, where human beings live in a decent world and enjoy rights in a set of social relations and; on the other hand the Colonial side, where human beings are not considered human neither are they subjects of the most fundamental rights. Hollywood does not explicitly show the Abyssal line and the existence of the two sides of the world: Metropolitan and Colonial. However, as this essays shows, many plots of Hollywood movies (both in liberal and neoconservative dystopian narratives) and TV series show in an indirect manner, some of the main features of the Abyssal world. In particular, the most intolerable and hurtful circumstances of today’s society are represented in scenarios and stories which take place in the futuristic, apocalyptic contexts.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the role and aspects of education and portray some representations of the educational system in force in "Divergent" and propose ways in which students can actually learn from dystopian fiction and make steps towards the change of their own educational system and society.