Literature lesson : Dystopian novels

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Literature

Plot of story:

Plot and tension

• The plot is the development in the story. One action or event relates to another action or event.
  

       Example: The King died, and the Queen died of grief.

       The ‘wh-questions’ are a good means to discover the plot.

• Tension (or suspense) relates to the plot. The more (unexpected) things happen, the more tension a reader will experience.
  

So...

• The exposition/background is the starting point of the situation in the story.
  
• Then the plot develops: rising action, working its way towards the climax.
  
• The climax of the story is usually towards the end of the story, but not necessarily the end itself. It is the moment all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
  
• The denouement is the falling action: the story comes to an open or closed end.
  

Characters

• Protagonist, main character: usually one or two
• Antagonist: provides obstacles for the protagonist.
• Supporting characters do not have any development, usually.
•  Readers often connect with the protagonist.
  
• Description: often uses labels: e.g. jealous, courageous, cheeky, though, strong, weak, etc. 

Theme

• The theme is the message of the story. 
• When you know the theme you will understand the story. 
• Some keywords for themes: love - revenge - redemption - good vs evil 
• You need to be able to describe the theme, so a theme is usually more than a keyword. 
• Stories contain multiple themes  

Setting

• Time, place and social/historical context
•  Examples for place: country, house, room
• Examples for time: specific year or era, war time, future, seasons
• Sometimes there are no direct references, so look for clues. For example: references to historic events, name of the king/queen, is it inside our outside. 
• What ere the social norms: worlds with magic, dystopians, kingdoms etc.

Literature lesson : 

Dystopian novels

What is the world coming to?

• The big question of dystopian literature.
• Reaction to and criticism of your current societies & politics, and where it might be headed in the future.
• A dystopian work is a reflection of the society/political situation at the time of writing. A book from the 1950s can be radically different from a work of the 2000s.
• Older works focused more on public mistrust and suspicion, a police state, oppression by a 1 party government. 
• Modern works focus more on global warming, social media, inequalities (wealth, race, sex), religious extremism, pandemics,  government power
• Yet some works written over half a century ago are still relevant today, such as 1984  or Brave New World. 

Genre of variety

As you can see, there is a great variety of dystopian worlds
and stories in our popular culture, from books to games. 
A lot of them focus on:

• oppression (religion, government, capitalism)
• (self-)destruction of humanity (nuclear, scientific, alien invasion)
• technology run amok (robot overlords, life is a simulation)
• pandemic catastrophe (incurable diseases, experimentation)
• wasteland post-apocalypse (survivalist, scarcity of resources)

Utopia vs Dystopia

Dystopia: an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. 

Utopia: an imagined place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions.

00:58

What does the word dystopia literally mean?

1. distant place
2. not-good place
3. non-existent place

02:09

What was disturbing about the future world of "The Time Machine"?

1. Economic inequality resulting in separate species of humans
2. A nuclear apocalypse rendering the world barely habitable
3. Time travel destroying the fabric of the universe

03:21

Which of these events was NOT a major influence on dystopian fiction?

1. WW II
2. The Industrial Revolution
3. The Roaring Twenties
4. Communism in Soviet Russia

03:58

What was Orwell trying to critique in his novel "1984"?

1. Propaganda
2. Capitalism
3. Oligarchies
4. Communism

04:57

What was a major difference between dystopian fiction of the 19th century and the 20th?

Assignment: 1984

1. Describe the setting of the story, as you know after reading chapters 1-3.
2. Describe the main character.
3. What other characters are being introduced? Describe them.
4. When was the book published?
5. Genre?
6. Perspective an narrator.
7. Protagonist?