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The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature Fiction as Social Criticism
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M. Keith Booker
Book Code: GM9092
ISBN: 0-313-29092-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29092-3
208 pages
Greenwood Press
Publication: 5/30/1994
List Price: $107.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Booker's discussion usefully relates the important works of modern dystopian fiction to the tenets of important contemporary literary theories, and his coverage of newer Russian and American works of dystopian science fiction is especially informative. Upper-division undergraduate and up.
    —Choice
  • [An] outstanding volume in Greenwood Press' series on the study of science fiction and fantasy.... Booker's readings are often exciting, and his demonstrations that dystopian works deal with many of the same issues that modern critical theory treats are refreshing.... Booker's is a highly readable, extremely interesting text that contains many new insights into dystopian thought and literature.
    —
    Journal of American Culture
  • Essential to any future study of dystopian literature. Certainly, the bibliographies can lead us all to further fruitful investigations in the field.
    —SFRA Review
Description: While literary utopias depict an ideal society and reflect an optimistic belief in the triumph of humanity and government, dystopias present a society marked by suffering caused by human and political evils. This book offers a detailed study of several literary dystopias and analyzes them as social criticism. The volume begins with a discussion of utopias, dystopias, and social criticism. By drawing upon the theories of Freud, Nietzsche, and others, Booker sets a firm theoretical foundation for the literary explorations that follow. The chapters that come next discuss Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World, and Orwell's 1984 as social criticism of totalitarianism, Stalinism, the dangers of capitalism, and fascism. Later chapters consider dystopias after World War II, contemporary communist dystopias, and postmodernist dystopias in the West.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: Utopia, Dystopia, and Social Critique
  • Zamyatin's We: Anticipating Stalin
  • Huxley's Brave New World: The Early Bourgeois Dystopia
  • Orwell's 1984: The Totalitarian Dystopian after Stalin
  • The Bourgeois Dystopia after World War II
  • Postmodernism with a Russian Accent: The Contemporary Communist Dystopia
  • Skepticism Squared: Western Postmodernist Dystopias
  • Postscript: Literature and Dystopia
  • Works Cited
LC Card Number: 93-40174
LCC Class: PN3503
Dewey Class: 809.3
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