ENGL 91C Study Guide - Final Guide: Jeff Vandermeer, Antihero, Utopian And Dystopian Fiction
Document Summary
An imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, often one that is totalitarian or post- apocalyptic. Like utopia, dystopia often motivated by underlying critiques of status quo - governmental and economic systems; consumption practices and their ecological consequences; cultural ideas about gender, sexuality, race, etc. relationships with technology, culture/pop culture, and media. Station eleven deals with the influence of technology and art on modern life as a whole. Science fiction without the science explanations (involves a lot of hand-waving/sometimes directly calls something. Star wars as fantasy instead of sf because of the force. Fiction characterized by: medieval (or medieval-inspired) settings, mysterious and supernatural plot events, representations of terror, the sublime, the uncanny, and other extreme emotional experiences, thematic interest in the grotesque, the dangers of sexuality, and power relations. Later gothic fictions often relocate to urban areas; insist on the contemporaneity of events by incorporating up-to-date science and technology.
