Literatura Contemporánea Inglesa II

Trabajo Práctico Nº 2: Dystopian Literature

Nombre: María Retrivi

DNI: 36906388

Fecha: 10/10/2020

Calificación:

Consignas:
After going over all the material online on Dystopian Literature suggested in the
Webquest, answer the following questions. Please remember to explain your ideas
clearly and justify your answers with quotations from the texts.

1. Describe the origins of Dystopian Literature. (2,5 points)

The Dystopia genre emerged from the questioning of the utopia; a term first
coined by Thomas More in his book Utopia in 1516. Although the meaning
of the word utopia suggested impossibility (no place), the several modern
advancements encouraged the idea that it could become a reality. Thus,
utopian thinking took place during a period of time until world’s events such
as wars, famine, and oppression made artists question this kind of thinking
and the genre of dystopia (the not good place) emerged.

2. What do you think made Dystopian literature such a prominent genre in 20 th

and 21st century fiction? (2,5 points)
Dystopian literature has become a prominent genre due to the
circumstances and events that emerged in the 20 th and 21th centuries: wars,
the raise of totalitarian governments, environmental problems, and the
accelerated technological progress make people think that society could
reach the worst possible outcome: its self-destruction. In this way, dystopian
literature may seem to be a prognostic or even a warning about the
consequences of current circumstances society lives in.
 The dystopian pessimistic view about the future is also related with the
postmodern era thar aroused in the 20 th century, which is characterized by
the lack of confidence in progress and the questioning of political, economic
and social world’s conditions.

3. Think about an example of a present-day Dystopia and explain why you

consider it to be so. (2,5 points)

A present-day dystopia is the control of technology over people. Nowadays,

technology has become a central part of the society no one can think of
living without it. It means practicality and progress. But we have to see the
other side of the coin: the addiction generated by it and the risks of let
everything in technology’s hands. For instance, the lack of privacy and the
control corporations have over people’s data.
I consider that the risks taken by letting everything on technology is to end
up in a society controlled by corporations, that uses people to their own
benefit and profit. It is not people who use technology, it is the technology
which uses people.

4. Choose one example of Dystopian Fiction and analyse how the

characteristics apply to that work. (2,5 points)
The TV series Psycho Pass is a dystopian fiction set in a futuristic Japan
where a system of artificial intelligence called Sybil created an ideal and
self-sufficient society which is totally controlled by technology. In this
society, every citizen is judged by the Sybil System from their childhood to
measure their state of mind and personality. The system is capable to
prevent crime in society by “cymatic scans” which measure the Criminal
Coefficient of a person and determines if he or she is a potential criminal. If
the Criminal Coefficient is under the accepted threshold, the system decides
if the person is arrested or put into a medical center. But, if it exceeds the
accepted threshold, the system eliminates the person by killing him or her.

In this series the type of dystopian control is technological: all the society is
governed by an artificial intelligence, which appoints the politicians and
determines every person’s role in society, defining their fate. There is no
option for people to choose what the want to do or be, it is conditioned. In
addition, people are constantly monitored by robots that are everywhere:
streets, buildings, and also people’s homes. This is a characteristic of the
dystopian society, where an illusion of an ideal society is held by constant
control and oppression, and the system constantly supervises the citizens.
Another characteristic is the use of propaganda: the system is promoting the
consume of different medications in order to keep people’s Criminal
Coefficient under its standards.
In the series, people fully trust in the Sybil System and they do not question
the established order. Many times, they are resigned because they truly
believe in the system and think that it determines the appropriate fate for
everyone. This is another characteristic of the dystopian genre: the worship
to the system and the freedom of thought is restricted as negative or
doubtful thoughts that question the system’s efficacy increases a person
Criminal Coefficient.
The protagonist of the series is a police officer, who stars to question the
system’s methods to maintain control as she starts working in different
cases. As the series goes on, she starts to feeling trapped after she
discovers the reality about how the system really works. She is the only
citizen who knows the true about the Sybil System. At this point, there is
another characteristic of the dystopian genre: the restriction of information.
People do not know how the system was created and how it works.