Topic
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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TL;DR: The continued popularity of YA novels written expressly for young adult readers requires critical examination, as teachers must prepare themselves to deal with the questions raised by these texts as discussed by the authors, and the optimal incorporation of dystopian YA into the English as a foreign language curriculum relies on the preparation of instruction as understood by Wolfgang Klafki in a mode and format that feels fresh and encourages student-led engagement, genuine multimodality, and an organic progression from the closed circle of the classroom to the open arena of adult civilization.
Abstract: It is impossible to ignore the enduring and sweeping popularity of young adult novels (YA) written with a dystopian, or even apocalyptic, outlook. Series such as Th e Hunger Games, Th e Maze Runner, and Divergent present dark and boding worlds of amplifi ed terror and societal collapse, and their vulnerable protagonists must answer constant environmental, social, and political challenges, or risk starvation, injury, and various forms of pain and suff ering. More frequently than not, the tensions of the dystopian YA universe turn to the natural world, one of sustenance and renewal, for resolution. The continued popularity of dystopian fi ction written expressly for young adult readers requires critical examination, as teachers must prepare themselves to deal with the questions raised by these texts. Th e trend toward the dystopian seems like rather a bleak expression of political and social hopelessness, but it does off er certain insights into what young readers want from the world around them. Much of the appeal of the dystopian comes from imagining not just problems, but how to solve them. The ingenuity and resourcefulness displayed in dystopian YA novels is not only appealing, but becomes a bold and ultimately optimistic statement on the need for environmental and social sustainability. The optimal incorporation of dystopian YA into the English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum relies on the preparation of instruction as understood by Wolfgang Klafki in a mode and format that feels fresh and encourages student-led engagement, genuine multimodality, and an organic progression from the closed circle of the classroom to the open arena of adult civilization.
1 citations
30 May 2019
TL;DR: This article used Christa Schonfelder's theory on postmodern trauma texts to identify the way in which the traumatic memory of war victims is transmitted from the first generation to next generation and understand how the narrator constructs his discourse about the future of America and the world.
Abstract: This paper discusses the literary portraying of personal trauma in Omar El Akkad’s dystopian novel American War. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) identify the way in which the traumatic memory of war victims is transmitted from the first generation to next generation and (2) understand how the narrator constructs his discourse about the future of America and the world. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The researcher uses Christa Schonfelder’s theory on postmodern trauma texts. This research shows that the main narrator’s choice to positioning Sarat as a war victim, not a perpetrator of biological genocide, makes the narrative of Sarat’s traumatic memory political. It exposes that the first generation’s desire for personal narration becomes unnaratable, and that there is second/third generation’s urge for a future beyond trauma. The conclusion proves that American War contains the quest for stability out of disruptive experiences, constituting a crucial aspect of the need for narrative in the face of a dystopian future.
1 citations
TL;DR: The context-specific perspective outlined here offers insights into the interests of many different actors involved in the technology theatre, for instance, the corporate interest in sociotechnical frameworks (both apps rely on the Google/Apple exposure notifications application programming interface).
Abstract: This paper focuses on two examples of the introduction and use of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in The Netherlands (CoronaMelder) and Belgium (Coronalert). It aims to offer a critical, sociotechnical perspective on tracing apps to understand how social, technical, and institutional dimensions form the ingredients for increasing surveillance. While it is still too early to gauge the implications of surveillance-related initiatives in the fight against COVID-19, the "technology theatre" put in place worldwide has already shown that very little can be done to prevent the deployment of technologies, even if their effectiveness is yet to be determined. The context-specific perspective outlined here offers insights into the interests of many different actors involved in the technology theatre, for instance, the corporate interest in sociotechnical frameworks (both apps rely on the Google/Apple exposure notifications application programming interface). At the same time, our approach seeks to go beyond dystopian narratives that do not consider important sociocultural dimensions, such as choices made during app development and implementation to mitigate potential negative impacts on privacy.
1 citations
TL;DR: A Latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling was conducted on articles on AI and automation in The New York Times and The Washington Post between 1985 and 2020, and an inductive manual framing analysis was conducted to distinguish the frames that both newspapers applied over time.
Abstract: Over the last 60 years, media outlets have been covering emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. This countrylevel study wants to give a nuanced overview of how these technologies were covered in US newspapers. First, a Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling was conducted on articles on AI and automation in The New York Times and The Washington Post between 1985 and 2020. Second, an inductive manual framing analysis was conducted to distinguish the frames that both newspapers applied over time. Results from the topic modeling show that articles on AI and automation are most prominent within ‘Work’, ‘Art’, and ‘Education’. Concerning the manual framing analysis, the coverage has been more optimistic than pessimistic over time. However, when dystopian frames are considered, the results show that there has been more attention in the corpus on the impact of AI and automation on ethical conundrums involved with these technologies.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors discuss two symptomatic texts that are imbricated within the utopian/dystopian ambience: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik.
Abstract: The article discusses two symptomatic texts that are imbricated within the utopian/dystopian ambience: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik. The style and structure of the selected novels are revealed at the level of the chronotope and aimed at clarifying the correlation of genre-forming components within the triad of a ‘person – civilisation – society’. This paper tests a hypothesis that the discursive representation of these components in a narrative structure is realised through colliding utopian and dystopian worlds. Problematising this idea in fiction reveals how the tension between the diametrically opposed worlds promotes critical scrutiny of both to draw attention to the most pressing social problems facing humanity: the role of ordinary people in society, impact of mass media on public opinion, dissolution of morals, social disparity, drug addiction, etc. The study primarily follows a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach to exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of utopian/dystopian worldviews in the literary dimension. The dichotomy of utopia/dystopia manifests in the novels through the overt conflict of different patterns of life, mentalities, and cultures. Analysing the ways of a literary embodiment of this conflict in Bradbury’s and Towfik’s books explicates how creating a new reality from utopian/dystopian perspectives alters consciousness and promotes a completely different paradigm of existence.
1 citations