Dystopian Fiction

Question 1

Main Plot in Never Let Me Go

Answer 1

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Question 2

Main Theme(s) in Never Let Me Go

• context?
• relevance?

Answer 2

Author:

Question 3

Main Plot in Brave New World

Answer 3

.

Question 4

Main theme(s) in Brave New World?

• context?
• relevance?

Answer 4

Themes:

Author:

Question 5

Main theme(s) in Animal Farm?

• context?
• relevance?

Answer 5

Themes:

Author:

Question 6

Main Plot in Animal Farm

Answer 6

.

Question 7

Main theme(s) in Ten with a Flag

• what is it about?
• context?
• relevance?

Answer 7

Themes:

Author:

Question 8

Main theme(s) in The Ones Who Walk Away from the Omelas?

• what is it about?
• context?
• relevance?

Answer 8

Themes:

Author:

Question 9

Main theme(s) in Harrison Bergeron?

• what is it about?
• context?
• relevance?

Answer 9

Themes:

Author:

Question 10

Common themes in dystopian fiction?

Answer 10

Political

• who is allowed to rule?
• what kind of system should we have, or what does a certain system do to a society, to humans?
• often focus on some form of totalitatarian regime/society and their power and control over ppl’s lives (as opposed to Utopia, where control is seen as necessary and good)

Question 11

Distinction/Relation between utopia/dystopia and science fiction?

What about anti-utopias? Satires?

Answer 11

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Question 12

History of the dystopian fiction genre?

Answer 12

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Question 13

Compare the narrative situations in the novels/short stories on your list.

What does it do?

Answer 13

Brave New World
- heterodiegetic, internal focaliser switching which character’s interior thoughts and view is presented

Animal Farm
- heterodiegetic, more external covert

Never Let Me Go
- homodiegetic/autogiegetic, internal focaliser

____
Short stories:

Question 14

What makes dystopian fiction relevant for today?

Answer 14

• since dystopian fiction usually draws out an undesirable possible future scenario, contemporary dystopian fiction may raw attention to social, technological or political factors of our current state.
• It leads to questioning, reanalyzing facets of our own world and reality and where we are heading
• dystopian fiction written in the past allows us to analyse how close our reality has perhaps reached the envisioned dystopian world
• it may not classified as dystopian for us anymore
• can draw attention to which topics we have neglected