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.

Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era by Jie Li (review)

Abstract: Reviewed by: Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era by Jie Li Di Luo Jie Li. Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era. Sinotheory Series. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020. 367 pp. Hardcover ($114.95), softcover ($31.95), or e-book. Inspired by well-known author Ba Jin's idea of a memorial museum for learning about the causes and consequences of mass violence, Jie Li's new book curates exhibits of textual archives, audiovisual records, and material remains from the Mao era (1949–1976). It focuses on traumatic periods, spanning the Anti-Rightist campaign (1957) that criminalized intellectuals for their dissident voices, the Great Leap Forward (1959–1961) that induced famine claiming millions of rural lives, and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) that threw the country into turmoil. Analyzing the traces of the past as "externalized" memories (7), this book highlights the technological, media, and historical conditions of memory inscription, preservation, and transmission. All the traces this book examines have been brought to public awareness during the twenty-first century via digital, cinematic, and museum remediation. Unveiling the processes of memory-making and resurrection, this book reveals the "palimpsest" of memory formation (3) featuring nonlinear diachronic interactions between the past, present, and future. Utopian Ruins presents multilayered, pluralistic interpretations and representations of the Mao era. It reminds the reader of the idealistic visions of prosperity, equality, and collectivity that had inspired mass participation in the Chinese Revolution as well as the violence and mass suffering underwriting this zealous pursuit. This study thus challenges both the official master narrative in China that plays down traumatic experiences and the Western master narrative that epitomizes the Maoist years as the so-called "dark ages" (17). It instead stresses the "interconnection between idealism and violence, victimhood and complicity" (20) and nuances the dichotomous debates—"elite trauma" vs. "grassroots nostalgia" (6)—in previous discussions about the multivalent memories of the Mao era. The interconnection between utopian ideals and human costs is first exhibited via government dossiers of two intellectuals, Lin Zhao (林昭 1932–1968) and Nie Gannu (聂绀弩 1903–1986). Both were revolutionaries and were later accused of counter-revolutionary crimes. Chapter 1 focuses on Lin Zhao's writings in prison. Being denied stationery, Lin inscribed memory using her own blood. Deprived of any public communication channels, Lin utilized the state surveillance apparatus for her memory storage and transmission. The materiality of her blood writing, its circumstance of production, and its heart-wrenching messages embodied both the suffering and idealism of this period. Whereas Lin died a martyr, Nie Gannu survived. Scrutinizing the production, forms, and genres of this celebrated poet's police file, chapter 2 sheds light on record-keeping practices under the "archival regime of memory" (70). During this period, the masses served—voluntarily or coerced by the sense of fear—as eyes and ears of state surveillance. At the same time, they were acutely aware of the potential for their own sayings and writings to be archived. In composing confession and self-criticism, people living in Maoist China struggled to claim authorship over their own thoughts, words, and actions against others' interpretations. Once a disciplinary force, the police files of Lin and Nie gained public afterlives via a 2004 hagiographic documentary and via 2009 cyber forums, respectively. Later generations' remediation has revived these past-made memories to evoke subversive remembrance against official historiography. [End Page E-9] Turning to images, chapters 3 and 4 advance our knowledge about the evolving visual conventions and audiovisual ecology that conditioned memory-making during and after the Mao era. Rather than simply dismissing propaganda photos as fake or deception, chapter 3 excavates their evidential values by unveiling the theoretical rationales behind their production. The author points out that since the 1930s Chinese photojournalists, in their patriotic endeavors to rectify Western photographers' imperialist gaze, had embraced both the "testimonial qualities" and "propagandistic function" of photography (110). But what photographs testify changed from "reality as it is" to "reality as it should be" during the Great Leap Forward (105). Narrowing the visual conventions to merely witness socialist miracles largely excluded famine and catastrophes from photographic documentation. The two documentaries by European filmmakers...

Quarantine Zone: American Dystopia

Abstract: This chapter plays through the level “Quarantine Zone.” It introduces the characters Tess, Marlene, and Ellie; theorizes Joel’s hostility toward the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) in relation to the neoliberal state and the concept of militarized masculinity; describes gameplay mechanics and how they combine with fiction to win the player’s consent; and interprets the meanings of the Cordyceps virus.

Dystopian Games: Diagnosing Modernity as the Scene of Tests, Trials and Transformations

Abstract: Emergent genres can serve as diagnoses of society, particularly dystopias which exaggerate yet articulate problematic elements within modernity. Herein the focus is on ‘dystopian games’, particularly The Hunger Games and Squid Game, part of a wider genre emerging in contemporary culture wherein dystopia is not just totalitarian, oppressive or ideological, but also requires its protagonists to participate in contests and trials which transform them. Arguably, the global success of these texts reflects the cultural resonance of their diagnosis of the contemporary world as itself the ‘scene of a trial’ in Boltanski’s phrase. Following Stark on the sociology of tests, dystopian games can be related to the proliferation of intense competition in education and the labour market, relentless trials and evaluations at work and the contests for attention and popularity on social media. Building a dialogue between social theory and dystopian literature inspired by Foucault’s work on ‘truth-telling’ and ‘transformations’, what emerges is a vision of ubiquitous transformations created by compulsory participation in trials and tests, less emancipatory or self-actualizing than a nightmare.

Complicit in the Murder Program: Podcasting Dystopia in The Intercept’s Evening at the Talk House (2018)

Abstract: Podcasting is an increasingly popular audio-only, on-demand narrative form that draws millions of listeners, both within the U.S. and worldwide. While podcast scholars are excited about podcasts’ potential to create content that finds no place in the mainstream media, they have not yet investigated how contemporary fictional podcasts can create societal critiques. This paper investigates the political potential of critical news platform The Intercept ’s special feature audio play Evening at the Talk House (2018) by analyzing its content, form, and funding model. I will argue that Evening at the Talk House effectively uses the affordances of both the podcast and the dystopian narrative mode to expose the U.S. empire for American citizens by collapsing the distinction between the ‘good’ and safe homeland and the evil ‘other’ abroad. Evening at the Talk House, thus, raises questions about the complicity of regular citizens in enabling ‘murder programs’ (e.g. drone strikes, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) as citizens actively take part in and become the victims of imperial violence. However, consistent with The Intercept ’s daily reporting, Talk House fails to address a major motivation of the U.S. empire: establishing and maintaining global capitalism. This neglect can be explained by considering how the platform was established, as tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar provided its funding.

Utopia Lost – Human Rights in a Digital World

Abstract: The long progress towards universal human rights is regressing. This regression is pronounced within digital spaces once thought to be potential bulwarks of a new era in human rights. But on the contrary, new technologies have given rise to threats that undermine the autonomy, empathy, and dignity of human beings. Early visions of human rights being strengthened by networked technologies have instead crashed into technological realities which not only fail to advance human rights discourses, but rather serve to actively undermine fundamental human rights in countries around the world. The future of human rights is increasingly threatened by advances that would make George Orwell blush. Omnipresent data collection and algorithmic advances once promising a utopian world of efficiency and connection are deeply interwoven with challenges to anonymity, privacy, and security. This paper examines the impact of technological advances on the regression of human rights in digital spaces. The paper examines the development of human rights through changes in concepts of autonomy, empathy, and dignity, it charts their regression as technologies are used to increasingly prey on these very same characteristics that undergird human rights discourses.