Acompanha produto educacional / A presente dissertação apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa de caráter bibliográfico e exploratório, tendo como principal enfoque o trabalho com best-sellers e ensino de literatura em uma escola de Cornélio Procópio-PR. Os temas principais dessa pesquisa são: literatura de massa, distopia, tecnologias e ensino de literatura. Esses temas possuem uma pesquisa teórica que os fundamenta e que é o alicerce para a elaboração das atividades apresentadas, calcadas principalmente em textos de Adorno; Horkheimer (2009), Candido (2002), Cosson (2012), Clayes (2013) e Eco (2011). A questão que norteia este trabalho é de que maneira a leitura orientada da literatura de massa, apreciada e conhecida pelos alunos, poderia contribuir para a formação de leitores de literatura clássica. Portanto, o principal objetivo do presente trabalho é o de contribuir para a formação de leitores de literatura de proposta (ECO,2011). Este texto versa, por conseguinte, sobre o website e a fan page Admirável Livro Novo construído como produto educacional, das atividades realizadas e aplicadas durante o estágio do programa de Mestrado, utilizando como corpus principal o best-seller Jogos Vorazes, de Susanne Collins, e a distopia 1984 de George Orwell. Assim, os dados coletados revelam a importância de um ensino de literatura que parta de leituras escolhidas e realizadas pelos alunos, evidenciando possibilidades de uma efetiva formação de leitores. / This dissertation presents the results of a bibliographic and exploratory research, with the main focus is the work with best-sellers and literature teaching in a school of Cornélio Procópio-PR. The main research topics are: mass literature, dystopia, technology and literature teaching. These issues have a theoretical research that underlies them and which is the foundation for the elaboration of activities presented, substantiate mainly on texts of Adorno; Horkheimer (2009), Candido (2002), Cosson (2012), Clayes (2013) and Eco (2011). The question that orients is, in which way guided reading of mass literature, appreciated and known by the students, could contribute to the formation of classical literature readers. Thus, the main aim of this work is to form readers of proposal literature (ECO, 2011). This text versa, therefore, on the website and fan page built Brave New book as an educational product, of the activities undertaken and applied during the stage of the Master program, used as the main corpus the best-seller The Hunger Games of Susanne Collins and The Dystopia 1984 of George Orwell. So, the data collected shows the importance of a teaching of literature that starts of reads chosen and performed by the students, showing possibilities of an effective training readers.

This thesis examines selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy. It argues that a specifiable ecological ethic can be traced in their work – an ethic which is explored by them through the tensions between utopian and dystopian discourses. The first part of the thesis begins by theorising the concept of an ecological ethic of respect for the Other through current ecological philosophies, such as those developed by Val Plumwood. Thereafter, it contextualises the novels within the broader field of science fiction, and speculative fiction in particular, arguing that the shift from a critical utopian to a critical dystopian style evinces their changing treatment of this ecological ethic within their work. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts, each providing close readings of chosen novels in the light of this argument. Part Two provides a reading of Le Guin’s early Hainish novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest and The Dispossessed, followed by an examination of Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The third, and final, part of the thesis consists of individual chapters analysing the later speculative novels of each author. Piercy’s He, She and It, Le Guin’s The Telling, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are all scrutinised, as are Lessing’s two recent ‘Ifrik’ novels. This thesis shows, then, that speculative fiction is able to realise through fiction many of the ideals of ecological thinkers. Furthermore, the increasing dystopianism of these novels reflects the greater urgency with which the problem of Othering needs to be addressed in the light of the present global ecological crisis.

This study focuses on the investigation and deconstruction of the phenomena of the South African dystopian society, as reflected in the novels of Lauren Beukes and films by Neill Blomkamp. The characteristics and signifiers of a uniquely South African dystopian society are established and investigated through a posthuman lens. The theoretical framework of this study is principally concerned with the critical posthuman writings of Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway and, to a lesser extent, Cary Wolfe. Feminism and post-colonialism, and their influences on posthuman theory, are applied as the secondary theoretical framework, in this study. The study is practice led, with the study of the literature serving as mutually informative to the execution of a body of work centred on the dystopian theme. The paintings are intended to be metonyms for the wide range of manifestations of social decline evident in contemporary South African narratives. / Arts and Music / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-127) / This dissertation examines how three dystopian texts, namely Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, exhibit social conformity as a disciplinary mechanism of the ‘carceral’ – a notion introduced by poststructuralist thinker Michel Foucault. Employing poststructuralist discourse and deconstructive theory as a theoretical framework, the study investigates how each novel establishes its world as a successful carceral city that incorporates most, if not all, the elements of the incarceration system that Foucault highlights in Discipline and Punish. It establishes that the societies of the texts present potentially nightmarish future societies in which social and political “improvements” result in a seemingly better world, yet some essential part of human existence has been sacrificed. This study of these fictional worlds reflects on the carceral nature of modern society and highlights the problematic nature of the social and political practices to which individuals are expected to conform. Finally, in line with Foucault, it postulates that individuals need not be enclosed behind prison walls to be imprisoned; the very nature of our social systems imposes the restrictive power that incarcerates societies / English Studies / M.A. (English Studies)