In this seminar we will discuss why there has been such a "boom in dystopian fiction", as Laura Miller called the flood of publications that swept over us since the beginning of the 1970s. In the course, we will map out the literary tradition of dystopian fiction and characteristics of the genre, as well as identify those issues in a number of recent novels, focusing on changes of perspective and new generic paradigms. Furthermore, we will consider the visualizations of dystopian and apocalyptic visions of the future, thereby focussing on the film versions of The Road and Never let me go and how they highlight or change pertinent aspects of their literary models.
Students are required to buy their own copies of the three course novels and start reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road before the first session. Excerpts from other novels, reviews, introductions and theoretical texts will be online on the course's virtual 'Semesterapparat'. The course requirements are: regular attendance, active participation in class discussions and the completion of the work assignments (mandatory).
Primary Texts:
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaiden's Tale. Anchor Books 2004.
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never let me go. Faber & Faber 2005.
Cormac McCarthy, The Road. Vintage 2007.
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