Dystopian and Bradbury Flashcards
science fictions
- stories about science and technology
- usually take place in the future
- not a good reputation
- regarded by serious literary critics as junk
How did Bradbury break the science fiction stereotype?
- made his own genre “speculative fiction”
- used the “What If?” questions
- aka dystopian
dystopia
- illusion perfect world, but one that is actually deeply flawed
- usually a way to critique something about our current society by exaggerating it to a worse case scenario
What are the characteristics of a dystopia?
- propaganda is used to control the citizens of society
- information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted
- figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society
- citizens may be under constant surveillance
- citizens have a fear of the outside world (taught to fear anything outside the controlling state)
- citizens are dehumanized
- natural world is banished and distruated. the society is completely urbanized (nature symbolizes freedom)
- citizens conform to uniform expectations (individuality and dissent are bad)
- only the large group is valued (smaller groups- based on religion or family, frowned upon)
- society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world
What are the types of dystopian control?
- control by government
- control by religion
- control by technology
- control by corporations/companies
control by government
-society is controlled by oppressive or incompetent government
control by religion
-society is controlled by religious or philosophical ideology
control by technology
-society is controlled by technology (computers, robots, etc)
control by companies/corporations
-one or more companies control society through products, advertising, and media
dystopian protagonist
- often feels trapped and is struggling to escape
- questions the existing social and political systems
- believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives
- helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her perspective
dystopian narrative
- backstory
- hero
- conflict
- goal
- resolution
backstory
-there must be some kind of story that explains how the world got this way
hero
-story centers on a protagonists who feels intuitively that something is wrong with society
conflict
- group that is not completely controlled
- hero will organize with them as a means of resistance
goal
-typically either escape from or destruction of the current social orde
