The Literature Book

252

D

ystopian literature is a

genre that portrays the

nightmarish vision of a

society that is the polar opposite

of a utopia (an ideal, perfect world).

Ever since the appearance of

Thomas More’s Utopia in 1516,

dystopias have been evoked over

the centuries by a wide range of

writers to focus on topics such as

dictatorships (both communist

and fascist), poverty, torture, the

oppression of populations, and

the control of people’s minds.

Authors use these dystopian

worlds to explore central human

concerns, creating visions of the

possible consequences of things

happening in ways that are

unrestrained. Margaret Atwood’s

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), for

instance, sees a world run by a

military regime, in which women

have been stripped of their rights

and are appreciated purely for

their reproductive value.

Turning points

Dystopias focus primarily on

imagined futures, and often on the

fear of what may arise from new

technologies and social change.

For example, in the 20th century,

the threat posed by the destructive

force of the atomic bomb and

the scenario of dramatic climate

change have both provided

powerful sources for dystopias.

George Orwell’s Nineteen

Eighty-Four is the best-known

modern dystopia. Orwell’s fear

of rising Stalinism is the starting

point for the novel. Although Orwell

believed in a democratic socialism,

he saw the emerging USSR—in

which one political party had

consolidated complete control—as

anything but socialist. He had also

witnessed the splintering of anti-

Franco forces in the Spanish Civil

George Orwell George Orwell was born as Eric

Arthur Blair in India in 1903 to

British parents. He was educated

in England before heading back to

the East, to enroll in the Indian

Imperial Police in Burma. In 1928,

he moved to Paris, returning to

London in 1929 to write Down

and Out in Paris and London

(1933). In 1936, Orwell traveled

to Wigan, northern England, to

experience the poverty forged by

the Depression. That same year he

married Eileen O’Shaughnessy

before going to fight in Spain’s

civil war and getting shot through

the throat. Orwell returned to

England in 1937 and in 1941 he

joined the BBC, only to resign

in 1943. He returned to writing

with Animal Farm (1945), which

proved an immediate success.

His wife died unexpectedly that

same year, and Orwell isolated

himself on Jura, a Scottish

isle, where he wrote Nineteen

Eighty-Four (1949). He died of

tuberculosis in 1950 at 46.

Other key works

1934 Burmese Days

1937 The Road to Wigan Pier

1938 Homage to Catalonia

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Dystopia

BEFORE

1516 English humanist Sir

Thomas More’s Utopia first

imagines an ideal society,

and its opposite—a dystopia.

1924 Russian writer Yevgeny

Za myatin’s We describes the

One State, where people live

for the collective good.

1932 In English writer Aldous

Hu x ley’s Brave New World

individuality is suppressed.

AFTER

1953 American novelist Ray

Bradbur y’s Fahrenheit 451 is

banned and burned.

1962 English novelist Anthony

Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange

depicts a world full of violence.

1985 The Handmaid’s Tale, by

Canadian Margaret Atwood, is

set in an America run by a

totalitarian Christian regime.

He who controls the

past controls the future.

He who controls the

present controls the past.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

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