Critical Theory and Dystopia
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
Critical Theory and Dystopia
By (Author) Patricia McManus
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
1st April 2024
United Kingdom
Classifications
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000
Cultural studies
809.93372
Physical Properties
Paperback
224
Width 156mm, Height 234mm, Spine 12mm
313g
Description
Bringing the resources of critical theory to bear on the genre of dystopian fiction, this volume demonstrates both the continuing potential of Theodor Adornos work on literature, and the meaning of dystopia when considered in the light of Adornos critique of modernity.
Critical theory and dystopia offers a uniquely rich study of dystopian fiction, drawing on the insights of critical theory. Asking what ideological work these dark imaginings perform, the book reconstructs the historical emergence, consolidation and transformation of the genre across the twentieth century and into our own, ranging from Yevgeny Zamayatins We (1924) and Aldous Huxleys Brave New World (1932) to Anthony Burgesss A Clockwork Orange (1963) and Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series (2000s and 2010s). In doing so, it reveals the political logics opened up or neutered by the successive moments of this dystopian history.
Author Bio
Patricia McManus is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at the University of Brighton.
