With the current resurgence of fascism worldwide, George’s Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 is as relevant today as it was at its time of publishing in the 1940s. This seminar considers the Dystopia genre and how dystopias have changed over time. From classics of the genre like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale to contemporary speculative dystopian fiction, we will discuss both political as well as climatological dystopias and the way in which the latter are nonetheless political.
As the consequences of the devastations of the climate crisis are encroaching more and more into daily life, speculative fiction on the climate crisis is becoming our reality. How does dystopian fiction attempt to grapple with these developments and imagine the almost unimaginable long-term consequences of climate wreckage? And can we derive a sense of hope from stories about desolation? Among others, these questions will be discussed in the Seminar.
Required reading:
George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), Penguin Student Edition, 2000. ISBN: 9780140817744.
Margret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale. Knopf Doubleday, 1998. ISBN: 978-0385490818. (Or other edition)
James Bradley. Ghost Species. Hamish Hamilton, 2020. ISBN: 978-1926428666.
Lydia Millet. A Children’s Bible. Norton, 2020. ISBN: 978-1324005032.
- Kursleiter/in: Karoline Huber