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Section 1: pages 1 - 36
Section 2: pages 37 - 109
Section 3: pages 113 – 153
Section 4: pages 154 – 199
Section 5: pages 203 – 240
Section 6: pages 241 – 282
Dystopian Literature
• When we think about the
dystopian novel, what first
comes to mind is often
George Orwell's NineteenEighty-Four.
• Published in 1949; he
prophesied the advent of a
flawless totalitarian society,
in which the individual is of
literally no significance.
Dystopian Literature
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Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Cormack McCarthy’s The Road
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx
and Crake, The Year of the Flood
• Douglas Coupland’s Generation A
Why Read It?
• The critic Bernard Richards once
said 'dystopias are useful; they
warn us about what might
happen'.
• This seems fair enough; you
can finish a copy of Margaret
Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
and breathe a sigh of relief,
safe in the knowledge that you
don't live in the repressive
state of Gilead in which the
sole functions of women are as
sex-objects and babymachines. Even if you happen
to be a man.
• The dystopian novel is a
comforter to the human psyche;
we like to read about death and
corruption, as long as we know
that it can't happen to us. Or do
we?
• Could we all awaken one morning to find
our bank accounts mysteriously
cancelled? The world a changed,
oppressive place? Maybe, and perhaps it
is this that compels us to read dystopias;
they provide a spark of danger in our
otherwise mundane lives.
Two Main Types of Dystopian Dregs…
• 1) Nasty Things Happen but
Everything Turns out Right.
• This plot is followed in LP Hartley's
1960 novel Facial Justice, in which
the heroine, Jael 97, beats the
Establishment at its own game and
everyone lives happily ever after.
Two Main Types of Dystopian Dregs…
• 2) Nasty Things Happen but Despite Everyone's
Best Efforts the Establishment Wins.
• An example of this scenario can be seen in Aldous
Huxley's Brave New World of 1932, in which
babies are created in bottles, meaningful
relationships are obsolete and in the end John...
no, best not give that away. Suffice it to say, that
the novel's conclusion is suitably depressing.
• Most authors of dystopian novels choose this
option.
Common Concepts
• As with plot, almost all dystopias
deal with the same fundamental
concepts. Of these, the most
common include:
–The Status of the Individual
–The Nature of Power
–Communication
The Status of the
Individual
• In a word - low.
• The individual is of
little, if any
consequence, the
desire being for
uniformity within
society.
The Nature of Power
• There is some variation
here. The seat of power in a
dystopian society can rest
with an individual corrupt
dictator or a corrupt
governmental entity, but
the effect is much the same;
the individual is crushed and
freedom curtailed.
Communication
• Poor, artificial, stilted;
these are all words
that could apply to
communication in a
dystopian novel.
• Communication is just
another method of
control in the
dystopian society.
Never Let Me Go
• A Dystopian Novel
• Set in a slightly skewed version of
contemporary England, in which
people are produced to provide
‘donations’ to the general public.
• Follows Kathy H and her childhood at
Hailsham school…