Cette étude analyse le discours totalitaire à travers le prisme du personnage du Grand Inquisiteur dans quatre romans dystopiques : "Le Zéro et l’infini" d’Arthur Koestler, "1984" de George Orwell, "La Zone du Dehors" d’Alain Damasio et "2084" de Boualem Sansal. Il s’agira non seulement de comprendre la structure du discours totalitaire mais également la façon dont il interagit dans l’univers dystopique et avec les autres personnages. La méthode de recherche aborde ces questions de façon pluridisciplinaire afin de mieux analyser les aspects linguistiques, historiques et philosophiques au sein de la littérature dystopique. La thèse se découpe en trois grandes parties, elles-mêmes divisées en trois chapitres. Il s’agit d’étudier en premier lieu la parole hérétique qui s’oppose au dogme totalitaire, pour ensuite comprendre la manière dont le discours du Grand Inquisiteur impose son joug sur chaque individu. Enfin, la recherche aborde la dimension salvatrice de chacune des œuvres du corpus. A travers elles, les auteurs ne souhaitent pas uniquement tendre un miroir désespérant du monde mais aussi ouvrir des possibilités pour faire face aux dérives totalitaires qui peuvent être engendrée / This research analyses totalitarian’s speech from the Grand Inquisitor in four dystopia’s books: "Darkness at Noon" from Arthur Koestler, "1984" from George Orwell, "La Zone du Dehors" from Alain Damasio and "2084" from Boualem Sansal. This work studies the structure of the totalitarian’s speech and how he interacts with dystopia’s universe and their characters. Questioning will be treated through dystopia’s literature and from linguistical, historical and philosophical viewpoints. Thesis is divided in three parts, each one divided in three chapters. First part analyses heretic’s speech in opposition to totalitarian’s dogma. Second part studies how the Grand Inquisitor dominates everyone in the dystopia’s society. In fine, third part tries to find the saving dimension in corpus. In fact, writers don’t want to show only a dark future. Their books are maybe a message to fight against totalitarian’s excesses.

This dissertation explores the ways that women authors of science fiction have altered conventions of utopia and science fiction in order to revise conceptions of gender, sexuality, the body, and the environment. I examine several twentieth-century feminist critical dystopias that continue to betray genre and form, and to shape the science fiction being written at this moment. Each of the works demonstrates particular elements that facilitate its revisionary power: challenging and deconstructing sex/gender systems, blending utopian and dystopian conventions, and engaging in temporal play. By doing so they accomplish a range of tasks: disrupting generic and historical conventions, blending genres, redefining utopia, and making connections with present realities in order to make a case for social change, particularly for female and queer subjects. Though many of the texts are considered canonical by sf standards, and have been widely praised and critiqued in academic publications, each one continues its project of resistance in the light of the genre and of ever-evolving theories of gender, sexuality, race, and identity. As a scholar of gender and queer theory, I find within sf an extraordinary realm of potential for those willing to challenge norms and imagine new possibilities. In their rejection of system and form, the authors render impure the genre of science fiction, providing a new space in which utopian ideals can become literary and cultural resistance.

Today it is common to state that we are living in an information overloaded society. But there are many different definitions of what can be said to constitute Information Overload and there is a lack of substantial research on the subject. Conclusions in the available literature on Information Overload are often drawn on anecdotal evidence and carries a dramatized picture of the causes and effects of the phenomenon. With the tools of discursive analysis this two years master’s thesis explores how the phenomenon Information Overload is portrayed in six popular science books that deals with the subject: Alvin Toffler (1970) Future Shock, Orrin Klapp (1986) Overload and Boredom, Richard Wurman (1989) Information Anixety, Andrew Keen (2007) The cult of the amateur, Maggie Jackson (2008), Distracted and Nicholas Carr (2010) The Shallows. The result of the analysis shows that there is a common discourse of how the subject of Information Overload is represented, which stretches in and between the books intertextually. In this study that discourse is called the dystopian discourse of Information Overload. It is structured by a unified use of narratives, concepts, themes, metaphors and statements and by its separation from the opposite utopian discourse of Information Overload. In the final discussion the results of the analysis are compared to postmodern theory, a problematisation of the concept of distraction and to the Swedish government’s 2012 investigation of reading habits of young people in the country. The conclusion of the study is that the two binary discourses discovered in the analysis – the dystopian and the utopian – should be avoided in the debate and research on Information Overload. Instead the discussion should be influenced by pluralism, complexity and awareness.

This thesis is an attempt to understand the relations between architecture and ideology in literary spaces in the context of Dystopias. It will pursue a definition of the relation between architecture and ideology to understand how the paradigmatic changes affect literary form of architecture to pose revolutionary thought(s). Literature often presents a dystopia or utopia to criticise its own written time, and literary text itself, is both a collection and a pressed version of that time. That is why to examine the ideologies and ideological changes in the period from 1920 to 1950, literary text and constructed spaces in dystopias are used as apparatus to form both the dominant ideology with its negative points and the revolutionary one as a space of resistance. Main discussion will be based on literary spaces in three dystopias / We written by Russian novelist Yevgeny Zamyatin, Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty Four written by George Orwell. These cases will be used to open the claim that dominant ideology determines the spatial distances of revolutionary thoughts and architecture, and appear as both cause and result of a materialisation of thoughts, thereby forming a dialectic representation of that ideology. Four main items will form the thesis / architecture, ideology, literary spaces (textual spaces) and trilogy of utopia/dystopia/heterotopias.

Costa Rica is a small country located in Central America, characterized by having one of the most stable democracies in Latin America. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to officially abolish its armed forces (1949), following the Civil War in 1948. From the time of its foundation as a Republic, Costa Rica has been defined in terms of homogeneity and socio-economic equality. These two features have been recognized as the main elements of the country's national identity, and the reason for Costa Ricans to be perceived as peaceful and happy individuals. This research utilizes the methodological lens of Performance Studies to analyze these iconic elements of Costa Rican national identity and to challenge the view of Costa Rica as a paradise. Even though the international community continues defining this country in the same manner in which it was defined during the second part of the nineteen century, the reality is that during the last three decades this nation has changed so much that the same definition is not adequate anymore. Street violence in the country has become a threat to citizens of all socio-economic classes, taking away their peace and happiness. I analyze this development and the response by the citizens in an attempt to show that Costa Rica is facing an internal conflict that could have devastating on its society. Many social movements have formed during the last decade to try to bring Costa Rica back to the nation it was at the beginning of the twentieth century. The most important characteristic of these movements is that they try to unmask the country showing that it is not peaceful in an attempt to recover the peace they believed characterized the Costa Rica of their ancestors.

The early twentieth century saw the beginning of modern environmentalism. Intellectuals dreamed up solutions to the world’s problems and hoped for a better future being made possible by advances in science and technology. However, Aldous Huxley produced Brave New World which, as this essay argues, mocks the enthusiasm of his intellectual peers. The dystopian novel depicts a future in which technology dehumanizes the population, and uses a great deal of animal imagery to make this point. This essay analyses the use of animal imagery from an ecocritical perspective arguing that the “pathetic fallacy” is reversed. By examining the use of biotechnology and central planning in the novel, and applying the ecocritical perspective that humanity and nature are part of a whole, this essay argues that society resembles a farm for human animals, which is partly expressed by Huxley’s use of the image of a bee colony. The argument is presented that Huxley satirizes his environmentally concerned peers by depicting a totalitarian state which, though unconcerned with environmental issues, echoes the eco-fascist methods proposed by the author’s friends and family.

Socialinė utopija yra stabiliausia žmonijos svajonė apie tobulą visuomenės būseną. Nematomu siūlu ji susieja tarpusavyje daugumą epochų ir savo šaknimis siekia tolimąją praeitį, atrasdama save žmonijos svajonėse apie „aukso amžių“. Būtent todėl kai kurie tyrinėtojai laiko socialinę utopiją vienu seniausių ir fundamentaliausių mitų. Utopijos esmės apmąstymams skirta daug filosofų, istorikų, sociologų darbų, tačiau iki šiol mokslinėje literatūroje neegzistuoja vieningo viešai pripažinto „utopijos“ sąvokos apibrėžimo. Dėl to diskusijos šiuo klausimu tebesitęsia. Kai kurie tyrinėtojai mano, kad apibrėžti utopijos apskritai yra neįmanoma. Nors mokslinėje literatūroje yra be galo įvairių „utopijos“ aiškinimo būdų, darbe yra bandoma skirtingus požiūrius subalansuoti, kad galima būtų išspręsti iškeltą tikslą – aptarti perėjimą nuo utopinių epochų į antiutopinę. Socialinė utopija, kaip visuomeninės minties reiškinys, savo raidoje išgyveno daug etapų. Pirmiausia – tai mitologinis etapas, kada visi pasaulio reiškiniai, išpasakojami pagal jų daromą įspūdį žmogaus vaizduotei, įgauna (mūsų akimis žiūrint) simbolinį, fantastinį bei sapnus primenantį pobūdį. Antrąjį etapą galima sąlygiškai apibrėžti kaip demitologizavimo, arba racionalizavimo etapą. Čia atsiranda teoriniai aiškinimai, kodėl idealioji būtis ir su ja siejamas žmonijos laimingas gyvenimas yra kitokia negu realus gyvenimas. Šiuo atveju realusis gyvenimas savaip „įstatomas“ į kitą, lyg ir neegzistuojantį pasaulį, tačiau turintį... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Social utopia is the steadiest dream of sustainable human consciousness of the perfect state of society. It is an invisible thread binds together many times and has its roots in the distant past, revealing itself in the human dreams about the "golden age". That's why some researchers call the social utopia one of the oldest and most fundamental myths. Social utopia as a phenomenon of public opinion in its development goes through a number of stages, firstly, that the mythological stage, when a person creates a fantastic, fairy picture of the world, which in general is an emerging property of consciousness. The second phase can be arbitrarily designated as the theoretical-rational. Here, the construction of a human happiness is based on theoretical reflection by a rational positing of ideal being in a different, non-existent world, having though the features of the real world. Third, the practical stage in which the utopian theories that can affect the world and transform it (for example, utopian socialism) are being tried to implement. Here also presents utopian desire to embody social and moral foundations into real practical life. The revival and the rise of utopian consciousness usually occur in times of great social and political upheavals. This research indicates that nutrient growth for utopia is the crisis, transitional stages in the development of society, so utopia is often a symptom of the crisis in the existing social order. Utopia accumulates and expresses... [to full text]

Young adult novels are undeniably popular and yet they are simultaneously dismissed as inconsequential or light – conventionally deemed low literature, these novels are generally not considered worthy to be discussed in the same spaces as the less popular, more traditional high literature. If a genre of young adult novels were given a place within literary history, it would not only legitimize these novels as more than guilty pleasures or the provinces of adolescent readers who will come to grow out of them, but it would also open up the possibility for other forms of literature to be similarly recognized as worth reading or thinking about. The Bildungsroman, also known as the “novel of formation” or the more colloquial “coming-of-age” novel, is a genre grounded in the traditions of multiple literary histories and is commonly understood to be high literature. Marianne Hirsch models the European Bildungsroman, which is useful for both American novels due to the predominance of European and particularly English canon. This paper is interested in determining how contemporary young adult dystopian novels, examined through the Scott Westerfeld's Uglies and Veronica Roth's Divergent, both work within and depart from the conventions of the traditional Bildungsroman.

Dystopian fiction as intended in the Western literary tradition is a 20 th century phenomenon on the Arabic literary scene. This relatively new genre has been experiencing an uplift since the beginning of the 21st century and many works that have been defined dystopias have been published and translated into English in the last 10 – 15 years. In order to find out their main features, Claeys’s categorization of literary dystopias is applied and a thematic analysis is carried out on four Arabic dystopian works of narrative, written by authors from different parts of the Arabic world. The analysis shows that 21st century Arabic dystopias are political dystopias, with totalitarianism as their main variation. Rather than on society, their focus is on the individual, and more specifically on personal freedom. The totalitarian constraints are mainly caused by religious fundamentalism and bureaucratic procedures. Surveillance and control over population are implemented by means of religious precepts and bureaucratic constructions, together with, in some instances, control over language and technological devices. Political totalitarianism regardless of a specific political ideology is identified as main theme. The thesis suggests that a Western-based classification framework is only partially suitable for Arabic dystopian fiction of the 21st century and that further research, including but not limited to a specific classification theory for Arabic dystopian fiction, is necessary to properly investigate this new literary trend in Arabic literature.

"A Utopia antecipada: Ação Direta na Educação em Direitos Humanos", analisa as ações e resultados do "Itinerantes" para promover a educação em direitos humanos em 19 municípios no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. "Ação Direta" aponta para as iniciativas de educadores itinerantes ("Os Itinerantes") para buscar os alunos onde quer que eles estejam – nas perspectivas geográfica, social e educacional - e transformar espaços não-tradicionais e em arenas educativas. A Educação em Direitos Humanos foi implantada por meio de aulas abertas, debates, rodas de conversa, narrativas e filmes, com o objetivo de criar "momentos de formação" para desmantelar a "sociedade do espetáculo" que mistifica a violência institucional. Os educadores itinerantes em direitos humanos buscam as "vivências" dos alunos, registrando seu discurso, como forma de conscientização transformadora em futuras ações educativas. Propõe-se que a educação direta em direitos humanos promoverá a revolução educacional e social. / “The Dawning of Early Utopia: Direct Action in Human Rights Education”, analyzes the actions and outcomes of “Itinerant Wanderers” to introduce human rights education into 19 municipalities in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul State. “Direct Action” points to the iniciatives of Itinerant educators (“Wanderers”) to seek students where they are – geographically, socially, and educationally – and to transform non-traditional spaces into teaching arenas. Human Rights Education was implanted through lectures, debates, dialogues, narratives, and films, with the objective of creating “teaching moments” that dismantle the “society of spetacle” that mystifies institutional violence. Human rights itinerant educators solicit the “lived experiences” of students, recording their discourse which is transformed into consciousness raising teaching in future classes. It is proposed that direct human rights education will promote educational and social revolution.