Portefolio dystopie

Imaginary worlds :

 dystopia

→ Intro :

 Dystopian Literature explores the darkest facets of the human mind and human nature. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a dystopia is "An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible."  

Dystopia is a sub-genre of Science Fiction that appeared in the middle of the 20th century, George Orwell is one of the greatest actors of this sub-genre.**** To illustrate the theme of dystopia, we will start with an extract of the chapter 10 of the book "Animal Farm", published in 1945, written by the same author. This dystopian book is a satyre of Soviet society in the USSR at the 20 century by using animals to caricature it.

Next we will study a passage from Harry Harrison's book "Soylent Green", published in 1966. This work takes us to a dystopian future, described as chaotic by the author. Indeed, famine, disease, poverty, punctuate the life of 35 million New Yorkers in these future years.

Thirdly, we will discuss the article "Dystopian stories used to reflex our anxieties. Now they reflect our reality" published on 26 October 2015 by The Guardian. This article questions dystopian works and warns us not to let them become reality.

Finally, the last document is an oil on canvas by Michael Kerbow. This work takes us once again into the future. On this one we can see far too many cars piled up on the roads. The only plausible cause of this is surely the overpopulation that has taken over the planet Earth. As a reminder, a dystopia is a story that takes place in an imaginary society that is difficult or impossible to live in, full of flaws, and whose model must not be imitated. 

We can then ask the question : How is dystopia considered in art and what is it used for ?

1) A distopian future

a)a future destroyed by thoughtless acts

First of all, the common point we found in each of the documents is the fact that they all take place more or less in the future. These dystopian futures seek to make the spectators, the readers, aware of the catastrophes that could occur, according to them, if our society does not evolve in its way of seeing the world. In the various works, we see that society, the world, has been destroyed by individuals thoughtless acts.

b)A future punctuated by a thirst for power

Secondly, thirst for power plays an important role in the dystopia described by our works. Indeed, in the first document, we see the rise of the pigs' desire for dictatorship. This story shows us that despite the desire for a wonderful society where all animals are equal, the thirst for power prevails. The pigs in whom all the animals had hope also find themselves acting like humans, despite all their promises of progress for the Farm.

The most concrete example is in chapter 10 of the novel, where the 7th commandment that governed the laws of the farm changes from "All animals are equal" to "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others".

Moreover, the article published by The Guardian suggests that these patterns of dystopia where the lust for power ends up destroying society actually apply today, as the title of the article suggests «  Dystopian stories used to reflex our anxieties. Now they reflect our reality »

c) A nightmarish future

Thirdly nightmare is illustrated in different ways in the documents. Such as the dictatorship, where each person is not equally valuable, as in George Orwell's novel in support. We can also take here the example of the second supporting document, the extract from"Soylent Green". This book describes a completely dystopian society, where "On this hot August day in 1999, there are - give or take a few thousand - thirty-five million men in New York.", an overpopulated head of cities frightens any kind of reader.

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