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Dystopia

About: Dystopia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2146 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15163 citations. The topic is also known as: cacotopia.


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Journal ArticleDOI
Maren Linett1
TL;DR: The Brave New World is examined as a representation of a society without old people in conjunction with ideas about aging and life narratives put forward by philosophers and bioethicists such as Ezekiel Emanuel, Gilbert Meilaender, and Alasdair MacIntyre.
Abstract: This article inserts Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) into a bioethical conversation about the value of old age and old people. Exploring literary treatments of bioethical questions can supplement conversations within bioethics proper, helping to reveal our existing assumptions and clear the way for more considered views; indeed, as Peter Swirski has argued, literary texts can serve as thought experiments that illuminate the ramifications of philosophical ideas. This essay examines the novel's representation of a society without old people in conjunction with ideas about aging and life narratives put forward by philosophers and bioethicists such as Ezekiel Emanuel, Gilbert Meilaender, and Alasdair MacIntyre. While critics, and Huxley himself, view the Brave New World as dystopian primarily because of its depiction of a totalitarian society where art, truth, and meaning are sacrificed to pleasure and distraction and where the ruled are programmed not to question the values of their rulers, the novel also makes clear that the excision of old age has significant political, moral, and emotional costs.

2 citations

01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In recent years, the alleged idiosyncratic dominion and hegemony of postmodernism in the fields of higher arts, but also in popular culture, has slowly begun to make way for a new resurgence of modernism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In recent years (from the mid-1990s onwards, roughly), the alleged idiosyncratic dominion and hegemony of postmodernism in the fields of the higher arts, but also - and perhaps even more importantly - in popular culture, has slowly begun to make way for a new resurgence of modernism. This new "modernism," or, as I call it, "transmodernism," has somehow assimilated some of the features of its predecessor -postmodernism, while returning to some of the classic values of modernism: the reinforcement of a strong, structured and original "Narrative," a greater appeal for the avant-garde and abstract art, daring inventions as opposed to redundant postmodern recycling, a more worried and dystopian gaze thrown on the world, as opposed to postmodern relative carelessness and nostalgia, etc... This applies strikingly in several forms of art, from architecture and automobile design, up to music (both contemporary classical music and pop music, as in the case of an artist like David Bowie), but most importantly in cinema. Indeed, recent directors of importance like Lars Von Trier, Bruno Dumont, Gaspar Not, Michael Haneke, but also Gus Van Sant and David Cronenberg (to name but a few), have in common their simultaneous (though not connected in any systemic way) vow to renew cinema. The medium, it is commonly believed, has been undergoing a cultural crisis that was witnessed by almost everyone so far (leading even to such aberrations as a book called Death of Cinema). The truth is less alarming and simpler. We are just witnessing another shift of aesthetic equilibrium in the fields of popular culture. This is simply the expression of a need for a more demanding, more ambitious form of art, after the kitsch and often careless excesses of postmodernism - a movement, needless to say, which has also brought its share of remarkable achievements over the past thirty years.

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored the utopian political possibilities of the ecological disaster novel through a reading of Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy (2005-2007) and claimed that the cultural form it names the "realist critical dystopia" best captures this utopian dynamic.
Abstract: This essay explores the utopian political possibilities of the ecological disaster novel through a reading of Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy (2005-2007). Robinson's trilogy offers a crucial intervention into visions of ecological catastrophe by formally negotiating between the conceptual categories of “disaster,” “crisis,” and “event” in a way that leaves liberal reformist solutions untenable while at the same time refusing ahistorical and anti-dialectical fantasies in which disaster becomes the magical solution that will automatically create change. This essay claims that the cultural form it names the “realist critical dystopia” best captures this utopian dynamic.

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors mined media ecology literature, the work of the renowned Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, and other sources to propose some answers and choices for the path forward.
Abstract: In recent years, commentators have characterized the disruptive social occurrences and technological changes as dystopic. As we attempt to address and deal with this melee of events with their associated emotions and reactions, this article mines media ecology literature, the work of renowned Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, and other sources to propose some answers and choices for the path forward. More specifically, this article defines dystopia and describes Freire’s Gnostic cycle, which is comprised of active research, learning and teaching as a possible antidote. It highlights media ecology articles complementary to Freire that may be further leveraged. Finally, the article focuses on Freire’s Gnostic cycle in offering suggestions regarding future media ecology work to contribute in building a post pandemic world.

2 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023244
2022672
202192
2020142
2019141