I chose to do my presentation on
Utopian and Dystopian Literature largely because of the dystopian
literature. I've always found it interesting, and I account my skills
in doing close readings to the fist dystopian novel I was ever
required to read. I was only in Elementary school at the time and we
started to read The Giver. I remember several kids in my class
were excused from reading it after a day or two because of some
nightmares, tears, and angry parents. The effect it had on them made
me want to read it even more. I started to realize that, even though
this world didn't really exist, I could find similarities with things
that were going on in my world. It was a simple first reading (and I
can't really tell you any more about it because I haven't even read
that book in so long), but it got me started on being able to read
and understand books in a different way.
Another reason I chose to do this as
my presentation was because, as I said in our discussion on Friday,
there has been a massive rise in Young Adult Dystopian novels (and YA
fiction happens to be my favorite). I knew this, just by the time I
spend in the library and looking at the books. The Hunger Games
became extremely popular, but on top of that, it seems that every
book with a cool looking cover ends up being another dystopian novel!
This one's about teenage girls being egg farms for families, this
one's about an minority group being seperated and needing to go to
others for help because something that happens, this one extracts
emotions, and this one... ugh. I don't even know.
Since it did come up this last Friday
though, I looked into it, and I'm not just being paranoid. I've
looked up the rise of dystopian literature in young adult fiction,
and others see it too. Even better, they even have some theories as
to why. My favorite article happened to be from another English
major. You can find it the article here
(http://suite101.com/article/young-adult-dystopian-fiction-and-its-impact-a84705)
if you want to check it out yourself. Young adult fiction has that
unique window of when a lot of teens are trying to figure out who the
heck they really are. As corny as it may sound, dystopian literature,
especially the young adult type, shows a lot of strong protagonists
who are not afraid to fight for what they believe in, even when it
seems the entire world is against them. Dystopian novels enjoy
pushing the limits and making people think about the world they live
in.
I also believe that the Hunger
Games
has caused an increase in interest in the genre. They were very
popular books, still are, and became a popular movie. Websites like
Goodreads.com have become very popular and with ereaders, we
constantly get a stream of “you liked this book! You'll love these
too!” There's also the more pessimistic view that our world is
becoming more apathetic and more technological. Some think that
because of this, teens can connect better with them now. Now I want
to know, what do you guys think?
How might we connect the contemporary interest in dystopian fiction with an earlier interest in utopian fiction?
ReplyDeleteI suppose we could think of it as the issues that concern a generation at the time. Utopian was a push to show the good that could be done if we would simply try (especially in feminist literature, where the changes weren't so drastic). I think right now that our thoughts are more wrapped up with the damage we are doing or could possibly do. Everyone's thoughts are wrapped in global warming, cloning, and tons of ethical questions. That's my theory anyways.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Minnie that the gravitation toward each reflect the values of 18th century and the modern times, but don't utopian and distopian novels want the same thing? They both call for reform, they just do it in different ways. I know that's an oversimplification of these rich literary genres, but to me, what their similar aims as well as the popularity of both these genres reveal is that, although the ways we go about vying for change, well, change over time, the vying part remains constant, so maybe we're more connected with 18th century folks than we think we are.
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