Title: Exploring dystopian worlds in the novels and films in english: a future imagined
Abstract: This Master‟s thesis aims to explore eight dystopian texts produced over the last century from the approach of cognitive estrangement and defamiliarization, that is, from a creative interpretation of alternative or imaginary worlds to reflect on existing social and political conditions and foresight the future of humanity on Earth. Dystopian literature and Science Fiction offer the best ways to address imaginatively issues such as control and surveillance of population, stratification of citizens, destruction of nature, suppression of women‟s rights and the use of Techno-science by governments as a tool for enforcing oppression and for perpetuating their power. To cover a wide range of examples, I have included five novels and three films that have a significant impact on the ways in which we envisage a “near future” classified in Totalitarian, Biologically Based, Post-Apocalyptic, Feminist and Cyberpunk dystopias. They depict nightmarish communities with a distancing perspective to provide us compelling warnings about forthcoming dangers as these stories seem to be part of our own experience. This work concludes that their authors have included a socio-political commentary on the dominant preoccupations and anxieties of their age which we can extrapolate to our socio-political environment. I argue for the need to create more stories conveying cautionary messages about potential threats to humankind and to increase research into such topics to confront future challenges.
Publication Year: 2021
Publication Date: 2021-03-17
Language: en
Type: article
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