List of dystopian literature

Last updated

This is a list of notable works of dystopian literature. A dystopia is an unpleasant (typically repressive) society, often propagandized as being utopian. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that dystopian works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction." [1] [2]

Contents

18th century

19th century

20th century

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Fiction

Young adult fiction

21st century

2000s

Fiction

Young adult fiction

2010s

Fiction

Young adult fiction

2020s

Fiction

Young adult fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberpunk</span> Science fiction subgenre in a futuristic dystopian setting

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of drug culture, technology, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction.

Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.

Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip K. Dick</span> American science fiction writer and novelist (1928–1982)

Philip Kindred Dick, often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer and novelist. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. He is considered one of the most important figures in 20th century science fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science fiction</span> Genre of speculative fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula K. Le Guin</span> American fantasy and science fiction author (1929–2018)

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author. She wrote works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".

Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels combine both genres, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Atwood</span> Canadian writer (born 1939)

Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.

<i>The Handmaids Tale</i> 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which has overthrown the United States government. Offred is the central character and narrator and one of the "Handmaids": women who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "Commanders", who are the ruling class in Gilead.

<i>Stand on Zanzibar</i> 1968 novel by John Brunner

Stand on Zanzibar is a dystopian New Wave science fiction novel written by John Brunner and first in part published in NEW WORLDS in 1967 and in book form in 1968. The book won a Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 27th World Science Fiction Convention in 1969, as well as the 1969 BSFA Award and the 1973 Prix Tour-Apollo Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Collins</span> American television writer and author

Suzanne Marie Collins is an American author and television writer. She is best known as the author of the young adult dystopian book series The Hunger Games. She is also the author of the children's fantasy series The Underland Chronicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Burdekin</span> British novelist (1896–1963)

Katharine Penelope Burdekin was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters. She was the younger sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Several of her novels could be categorised as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction. She also wrote under the name Kay Burdekin and under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. Daphne Patai unraveled "Murray Constantine's" true identity while doing research on utopian and dystopian fiction in the mid-1980s.

A fix-up is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame story or other interstitial narration, is written for the new work. The term was coined by the science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt, who published several fix-ups of his own, including The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but the practice exists outside of science fiction. The use of the term in science fiction criticism was popularised by the first (1979) edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by Peter Nicholls, which credited van Vogt with the creation of the term. The name “fix-up” comes from the changes that the author needs to make in the original texts, to make them fit together as though they were a novel. Foreshadowing of events from the later stories may be jammed into an early chapter of the fix-up, and character development may be interleaved throughout the book. Contradictions and inconsistencies between episodes are usually worked out.

<i>Swastika Night</i> 1937 novel by Katharine Burdekin

Swastika Night is a futuristic novel by British writer Katharine Burdekin, writing under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. First published in 1937 and subsequently as a Left Book Club selection in 1940, the novel depicts a world where Adolf Hitler's claim that Nazism would create a "Thousand Year Reich" is realised. Forgotten for many years, until republication in 1985 in England and the United States, literary historian Andy Croft has described Swastika Night as "the most original of all the many anti-fascist dystopias of the late 1930s."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dystopia</span> Community or society that is undesirable or frightening

A dystopia, also called a cacotopia or anti-utopia, is a community or society that is extremely bad or frightening. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence, and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality, not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and vice versa.

<i>Worlds of Tomorrow</i> (magazine) American science fiction magazine (1963–1967)

Worlds of Tomorrow was an American science fiction magazine published from 1963 to 1967, at which point it was merged into If. The first issue appeared in April 1963. The last issue was published in May 1967. The publishers were Barmaray Co, New York City, and then Galaxy Publishing. It briefly resumed publication from Summer 1970 to Spring 1971, producing three issues. The magazine was edited in its first period of publication by Frederik Pohl, who was editor of Galaxy Publishing Co. from 1960-1969, and by Ejler Jakobsson in the second. It has published fiction by such noted authors as Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Philip K. Dick, Brian W. Aldiss, Jack Williamson and Philip José Farmer. Pohl stated in 1967 that the magazine showed a loss of $15,000 during its first incarnation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate fiction</span> Fiction in a setting defined in part by climate crisis

Climate fiction is literature that deals with climate change. Generally speculative in nature but inspired by climate science, works of climate fiction may take place in the world as we know it, in the near future, or in fictional worlds experiencing climate change. The genre frequently includes science fiction and dystopian or utopian themes, imagining the potential futures based on how humanity responds to the impacts of climate change. Climate fiction typically involves anthropogenic climate change and other environmental issues as opposed to weather and disaster more generally. Technologies such as climate engineering or climate adaptation practices often feature prominently in works exploring their impacts on society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmi Itäranta</span> Finnish novelist

Emmi Elina Itäranta is a Finnish novelist. Her debut novel Memory of Water was published by HarperCollins in 2014.

Carl Howard Freedman is an American writer, literary theorist and professor of English literature at Louisiana State University. He is best known for the non-fiction book Critical Theory and Science Fiction, and his scholarly work on the writer Philip K. Dick. Freedman's other works include a series of books on Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delany, and several essays and a book on China Miéville. In 2018, he won the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Stableford, Brian (1993). "Dystopias". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. pp. 360–362. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  2. ↑ "Life of chaos, life of hope: Dystopian literature for young adults" . Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  3. ↑ Houston, Chlöe (2007). "Utopia, Dystopia or Anti-utopia? Gulliver's Travels and the Utopian Mode of Discourse". Utopian Studies. 18 (3, Irish Utopian). Penn State University Press: 425–442. doi:10.2307/20719885. JSTOR   20719885.
  4. ↑ Kennedy, Randall (2003). Interracial Intimacies. New York: Pantheon Books. p.  134. ISBN   978-0-375-40255-5.
  5. ↑ Marina Yaguello. Lunatic Lovers of language. Imaginary languages and their inventors. London: Athlone Press, 1991. 0-485-11303-1. p. 31.
  6. ↑ Jean Pfaelzer (1984). The Utopian Novel in America 1886–1896: The Politics of Form. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press; pp. 81–6.
  7. ↑ Pfaelzer, pp. 120–40.
  8. ↑ Art, Carden (June 28, 2010). "Looking Hard at 'Pictures of the Socialistic Future'". Forbes.
  9. ↑ Barron, Neil (1998). What Do I Read Next?. Detroit: Gale Group. p.  299. ISBN   0-7876-2150-1. "The Repairer of Reputations", which offers a dystopic vision of the future...
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Top 12 Dystopian Novels". March 12, 2008.
  11. ↑ Uniwersytet Jagielloński (1986). Prace historycznoliterackie. Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. p. 70. ISBN   9788301066154 . Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 Mark Bould, Sherryl Vint, (2011) The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction. Routledge, ISBN   0-415-43571-4 (p.23).
  13. ↑ "Another classic dystopian work, Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (1921) was written at the same time as Zamyatin's work". The Cybernetic Imagination in Science Fiction. Patricia S. Warrick, MIT Press, 1980 ISBN   0-262-73061-8, (p.48).
  14. ↑ "Top 10 Overlooked Dystopian Novels You Should Read – Toptenz.net". toptenz.net. March 9, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  15. ↑ HO, KOON-KI TOMMY (1987). "Cat Country: A Dystopian Satire". Modern Chinese Literature. 3 (1/2): 71–89. ISSN   8755-8963. JSTOR   41492507.
  16. ↑ Cornis-Pope Marcel & John Neubauer (2004). History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Volume 3. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2004. p. 183. ISBN   90-272-3455-8. ...the dystopic satire Válka s mloky (The War With The Newts)...
  17. ↑ " a feminist novelist called Katherine Burdekin published under a male pseudonym, Murray Constantine, an anti-fascist dystopia with the title Swastika Night.."Alkeline van Lenning, Marrie Bekker, Ine Vanwesenbeeck, (p.88) Feminist Utopias in a Post Modern Era. Tilburg University Press, 1997. ISBN   9036197473
  18. 1 2 3 Tom Moylan; Raffaella Baccolini (2003). Dark horizons: science fiction and the dystopian imagination. Taylor and Francis Books. ISBN   0-415-96613-2 . Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  19. ↑ Booker, M. Keith (2002). The Post-utopian Imagination: American Culture in the Long 1950s . Greenwood Publishing Group. p.  50. ISBN   0-313-32165-5. Invitation also resembles other absurdist dystopias of the 1930s, such as Ruthven Todd's Over the Mountain (1939) and Rex Warner's The Wild Goose Chase.
  20. ↑ Clute, John (1993). "Koestler, Arthur". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. p. 675. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  21. ↑ Hickman, John (2009). "When Science Fiction Writers Used Fictional Drugs: Rise and Fall of the Twentieth-Century Drug Dystopia". Utopian Studies. 20 (1). Penn State University Press: 141–170. doi:10.2307/20719933. JSTOR   20719933.
  22. ↑ Clute, John (1993). "Nabokov, Vladimir". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. p. 854. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  23. ↑ Clute, John (1993). "Orwell, George". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. p. 896. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  24. ↑ Stableford, Brian (1993). "Vonnegut, Kurt Jr.". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. p. 1289. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  25. ↑ "The Space Merchants describes an archetypal dystopia, an America choked by the waste products of consumerism..." George Mann, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2012 ISBN   1-78033-704-3 (p. 1983).
  26. ↑ Knud Sørensen (1971) "Language and Society in L. P. Hartley's 'Facial Justice,'" Orbis Litterarum 26 (1), 68–84.
  27. ↑ Lopez, Edward J Archived November 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine . (associate professor, San Jose State University) "Thoughts on "Harrison Bergeron"", April 16, 2007
  28. 1 2 The best dystopias Michael Moorcock, The Guardian, January 22, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Michael Frayn's comedy has more usually taken an anti-utopian turn. He has written one explicitly dystopian novel, A Very Private Life...", "Whitehall Farces" Patrick Parrinder, London Review of Books, October 8, 1992.
  30. ↑ Clute, John (1993). "Levin, Ira". In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit, London. p. 715. ISBN   1-85723-124-4.
  31. ↑ "Ursula Le Guin Q&A | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books". London: Books.guardian.co.uk. February 9, 2004. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  32. ↑ Survey of Science Fiction Literature
  33. 1 2 Downing, David C. (September 1, 1995). Planets in Peril: A Critical Study of C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 157. ISBN   0-87023-997-X.
  34. ↑ Walter, Damien (December 17, 2012). "Darkness in literature: Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly". The Guardian. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  35. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1979.
  36. ↑ Mullan, John (November 12, 2010). "Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban". The Guardian. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  37. ↑ Riddley Walker: a Novel. WorldCat. OCLC   6916115.
  38. ↑ "The hero migrates from "real" Glasgow to Unthank, an underground dystopia". John Clute, Science Fiction: A Visual Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley, 1995 (p. 231).
  39. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1984.
  40. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 1986
  41. ↑ "BOOKS OF THE TIMES". The New York Times. June 2, 1987.
  42. ↑ Strauss, Victoria. "Book Review: Obernewtyn Vol. 1, The Obernewtyn Chronicles", SF Site, 1999
  43. ↑ Characterized as such by author himself, see Chapter 1
  44. ↑ "Kirkus Book Review".
  45. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 1993.
  46. 1 2 Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1992.
  47. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1994.
  48. ↑ Phil Daoust (September 1, 2001). "A kangaroo in a dinner jacket". London: Books.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  49. ↑ Koehler, Robert (January 23, 2001). "Battle Royale film review (mentions book)". Variety Magazine. Retrieved January 23, 2007.
  50. ↑ Natalie Babbitt, "The Hidden Cost of Contentment", Washington Post May 9, 1993, p. X15.
  51. ↑ Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2002.
  52. ↑ Brian Bethune (April 28, 2003). "Book Review: Atwood's Oryx and Crake". Maclean's Magazine.
  53. ↑ Kloszewski, M. (June 15, 2004). Library Journal, 129(11): 56.
  54. 1 2 D. J. Taylor: "Anima Attraction", The Guardian (April 16, 2005).
  55. ↑ Atwood, M. Brave New World: Kazuo Ishiguro's novel really is chilling., Slate Magazine , April 1, 2005
  56. ↑ Harrison, M John (May 27, 2006). "The gospel according to Dave". The Guardian. London. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
  57. ↑ Kotkin, Stephen (March 11, 2011). "A Dystopian Tale of Russia's Future". The New York Times.
  58. ↑ "Liberty Publishing House — Nontraditional Love (English)". Archived from the original on November 22, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  59. ↑ "LGBT themes in speculative fiction". www.general-books.net. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  60. ↑ "Margaret Atwood – The Year of the Flood". Knopfdoubleday.com. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  61. ↑ Rivieccio, Genna (February 12, 2017). "Poena Damni Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos Gets Worthy Translation from Shorsha Sullivan". theopiatemagazine.com. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  62. ↑ The Guardian (January 23, 2001) [ full citation needed ]
  63. ↑ The Guardian July 27, 2005 [ full citation needed ]
  64. ↑ My Top Five...Dystopian Novels for Teens The Guardian, August 4, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  65. ↑ "REVIEW: Genesis by Bernard Beckett". SF Signal. May 12, 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  66. ↑ "The Host". Stephenie Meyer. May 6, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  67. ↑ "Gemma Malley – The Declaration". www.gemmamalley.com. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  68. ↑ "Gemma Malley – The Resistance". www.gemmamalley.com. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  69. ↑ Karen Brooks-Reese: "Zombies Rise in Teen Lit", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , May 26, 2009
  70. ↑ Dempsey, Joe (October 28, 2015). "The Sex-Obsessed Cyberpunk Dystopia of Shimoneta". Anime News Network . Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  71. ↑ "The Bone Season". www.boneseasonbooks.com. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  72. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (October 3, 2013). "Inside the World of Big Data: 'The Circle,' Dave Eggers's New Novel". nytimes.com. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  73. ↑ Newitz, Annalee (September 13, 2013). "Atwood Imagines Humanity's Next Iteration In 'MaddAddam'". npr.com. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  74. ↑ "Fiction Book Review: The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian. Viking, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-02586-2". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  75. ↑ "Wool", a dystopian series about a group of underground people who get all of their information about the outside world through a single, digital screen..." "Self-published e-book author: 'Most of my months are six-figure months'". CNN. September 7, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  76. 1 2 "Books". allycondie.com. December 11, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  77. ↑ Carpenter, Susan (August 23, 2010). "Book review: 'Mockingjay'". Los Angeles Times. Fans aren't likely to be disappointed
  78. ↑ Tjala (March 2011). "Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness – review". theguardian.com. Monsters of Men was a real thrill to read, with a cliffhanger at the end of nearly every chapter.
  79. ↑ "Rossi's YA Dystopian Romance Lands at Warner Brothers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.