In this thesis I analyze and problematize Francis Fukuyama's position on posthumanism, largely expressed in his 2002 book Our Posthuman Future. In it he warns against the likely negative outcome of a potential biotechnological revolution, which could enable easy access to interfering with human genome via practices such as genetic modification or human cloning. Fukuyama's major assumption is that all members of society must meet some limited standards of humanity in order to be equal, because if people acquire different levels of artificially altered "human natures," the outcome will be stratification, irrecuperable inequality and perhaps even class warfare. For this reason, Fukuyama calls for a pre-emptive regulation of genetic manipulation so as to avoid a "posthuman future." I contrast this theory with a selection of transhumanist and feminist theorists as well as with examples from fiction, namely the trilogy Lilith's Brood (1987-1989) by Octavia Butler and the novel Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro. Drawing on these sources I conclude that Fukuyama's position is harmfully exclusionary and divisive; and also counter- productive in the sense that in his pursuit of securing freedom and equality he renders potential posthuman subjects fundamentally inferior, thus principally defeating his...

In the prison society of Circadia, the Jury doesn’t need chains or locks to keep citizens tame, only routine—but Valerie and Brennan break the routine. Valerie allows a hospital patient who hurt her in the past to die from cardiac arrest. Her twelve-year term will be reset if anyone finds out she didn’t try to save him; she’ll start over in the dangerous Twelfth Circle. With 455 days left in Circadia, she must lie not only to the authorities but also to her family. And she’s a terrible liar. Most conversations halt near Brennan, the Warden’s son, but even he catches the whispers after a police officer attempts to escape from Circadia. When Brennan learns that his mother and a Juror are rigging the officer’s public trial, they give him a choice: side with the Circadians and lose his safety, or side with the Jury and lose his self-respect. Structured in chapters that alternate between Valerie and Brennan, this novel—influenced by George Orwell, Suzanne Collins, and Michel Foucault—suggests that the best prison makes you comfortable. It makes you want to stay.

Ce mémoire propose une analyse de la dystopie féministe et mémorielle Les Sorcières de la République de Chloé Delaume, en s'intéressant particulièrement à l’illusion du média en direct que l'autrice y met en scène. Notre but sera de déterminer quel effet cette illusion peut produire dans le format statique d’un récit littéraire imprimé, ainsi que fut notre intention scripturale avec La Sociétose, court roman d’anticipation présenté dans ce mémoire. Seront entre autres convoqués dans la réalisation de ce projet, les philosophes Giorgio Agamben et Tzvetan Todorov, qui guideront notre réflexion, dans le premier cas, sur les intentions critiques de Chloé Delaume, puisque nous posons le postulat que le dispositif encadrant son récit mène à une dénonciation des institutions contemporaines, par la profanation, et que cette critique se veut forte grâce à un direct spectaculaire destiné à servir l'histoire. Dans un second volet réservé aux stratégies langagières, le critique Todorov nous fera voir comment l'enjeu de la parole magique pimente les tribulations croisées des personnages centraux. Notre projet créatif rejoint les Sorcières de Chloé Delaume à maints égards. La Sociétose raconte l'histoire d'une anthropolinguiste mondialement connue pour avoir créé un idiome inclusif, que le gouvernement nomme, sans raison apparente, en 2067, à la tête d'un organisme de haute instance destiné à éradiquer cette langue. Tout au long du récit, cette femme au cheminement contradictoire, fera l'objet d'une série d'émissions spéciales menées en direct dans le contexte de vifs débats linguistiques qui étouffent l'espace public alors que gronde la menace d'opérations subversives. Les deux récits au cœur de notre travail en recherche/création ont cours dans le futur, et à leur manière de « direct littéraire » mettent en scène des voix qui luttent contre leur effacement. / This project offers an analysis of the feminist and memorial dystopia Les Sorcières de la République, a novel by Chloé Delaume focusing on a live media broadcast staged by the author. Our goal will be to determine what effect this illusion can produce in the static format of a book, as was our scriptural intention with La Sociétose, a short anticipatory novel presented in this essay. Among others, the philosophers Giorgio Agamben and Tzvetan Todorov, will guide our reflection, in the first case, on what we supposed to be the critical intentions of Chloé Delaume, towards contemporary institutions, in a goal of denunciation by profanation. In a second section underlining language strategies, the Bulgarian critic Todorov will show us how magic speech intervene in the course of the central characters. Our creative project joins Les Sorcières of Chloé Delaume in many ways. La Sociétose tells the story of an anthropolinguist, Milénia Bernard, known worldwide for having created an inclusive language. For no apparent reason the government appoints Milénia, in 2067, to manage a high-level state organization intended to eradicate this language. Throughout the story, this contradictory character will be the subject of a series of special live programs in the context of fiery linguistic debates while a riot is to be prepared by fanatics. The two stories, La Sociétose an Les Sorcières complete each other in our research and creation work

The diploma thesis Modern Dystopias and Theories of Totalitarianism deals with comparation of this two phenomena. The thesis is based on the concept of Giovanni Sartori. He understands the phenomenon of totalitarianism as ideal ending of the axis totalitarianism- democracy. Extreme points of this axis fulfill the role of unrealizable ideal regimes. In reality we can only move closer to them but modern dystopias may represent these ideal regimes. The diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and practical section. There is the analyse of five books in the theoretical section which deal with the theory of totalitarianism. The analysis contains the work of Sigmund Neumann, Hannah Arendt, Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzeziński, Giovanni Sartori and Juan J. Linz. Each theory of totalitarianism is supplemented by reflection from other authors. There is the analyse of five dystopias (J. Zamjatin - We, A. Huxley - Brave New World, G. Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-four, M. Atwood - The Handmaid`s Tale, A. Moore, D. Lloyd - V for Vendetta) in the practical section. The analysis contains the storyline of the book, elements of totalitarian regime in the dystopia and inspiration of author for the world of dystopia. There is elaborated final comparation between theories of totalitarianism and modern dystopias...

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the contemporary western society is reflected in the modern dystopian works' perspective. Key problems and aspects defining today's western society, e.g. consumerism and the role of science and technology, are specified in the introductory part of the thesis. The next part concerns with dystopian creation. Firstly there is focus on dystopian genre characteristics and its roots and typology. Secondly there is introduced a triad of classical dystopian works' representatives: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Every work is shortly introduced with its synopsis in the beginning and key features of described visions of society follow afterwards. Then the thesis speaks about chosen modern dystopian works' representatives in detail: The Matrix by the Wachowskis, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth. After the synopsis summary of each there is an analysis of key features, a comparison with classical dystopias and a search for parallels in the contemporary western society. Questions how modern dystopias reflect modern society and how they correlate with classical dystopias and expert literature concerning contemporary social phenomena are answered in the conclusion of the thesis.

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"In From Eden to Dystopia: An Ecocritical Examination of Emergent Mythologies" "in Early Los Angeles Literary Texts, ecocriticism and critical regionalism were utilized" "alongside other American Studies practices to analyze nineteenth- and early-twentieth-" "century depictions of nature in Los Angeles. Specifically, these tools were applied to" "travel guides and narratives of the 1870s and 1880s, the turn-of-the-century magazine" "The Land of Sunshine, Upton Sinclair’s Oil! (1926) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big" "Sleep (1939), and other non-fiction publications of the 1920s and ’30s to track an" "evolving narrative of Los Angeles as a paradise and later as a place perched on the edge" "of ecological ruin. Key themes included nature as aesthetic or health-related amenity vs." "exploitable resource, along with both subtle and overt class- and race-based" "environmental exclusions. The chief aim of this thesis was to elucidate how Los Angeles" "went from a “new Eden for the Saxon home-seeker” to the place where its river was" "paved with cement and virtually forgotten for decades. This thesis concluded that with" "the Los Angeles River’s recent revitalization efforts, there could be future gains made for" "other aspects of the city’s environment, with the hope that uncovering past idea-shaping" "narratives of nature in Los Angeles may help illuminate how current ideas of Los" "Angeles as a place without nature came to be and how that city-versus-nature dichotomy" "can be both damaging and false."

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Through an analysis of the depiction of female protagonists in young adult dystopian and speculative works of fiction, this thesis establishes leadership studies as a theoretical framework for literary study. Leadership studies is a relatively young branch of academic inquiry, using interdisciplinary approaches to investigate the phenomenon of leadership. From psychology, sociology, and philosophy, to education, business, and history, leadership studies has both drawn from and provided insight into a variety of disciplines; however, these theories have not yet found their way into conversations about literature. My thesis pulls leadership studies away from its corporate connotations to establish it as a valid and valuable addition to our literary analysis repertoire through a demonstration of its potential to further conversations about texts. This analysis is positioned within the contexts of children’s literature, feminist theory, and practices of reading for ideology, anchoring leadership studies in already-established modes of inquiry while demonstrating how this field offers valuable insight into them. My focus on dystopian and speculative young adult novels reflects the recent surge in dystopic/postapocalyptic texts that feature strong female protagonists, presenting potential leadership strategies for young girl readers during an important stage of development. Thus, this thesis uses leadership studies to further our analysis of how agency, power, and gender are represented within children’s literature.

In his Truth and Method, Gadamer explains that subjectivity is the everyday understanding that allows us to engage with the world. Gadamer identifies three main aspects that effect our understanding, namely history, language and dialogue. Dystopian fiction is in a unique position to portray how systems of societal control affect and effect understanding, and thus subjectivity, because dystopian fiction primarily explores societies rather than only individuals. This dissertation applies Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to analyse their portrayals of subjectivity critically. Huxley’s imagined world of test-tube births, rampant consumerism, feelies and orgy-porgies depicts a subjectivity that is nearly completely controlled through the manipulation of history, language and dialogue, with the exception of a few rebellious characters. But Orwell’s Oceania is far grimmer, and the systems of control in place to manipulate history, language and dialogue create a harsh environment in which Winston Smith, the protagonist, struggles to assert his individuality, his own subjectivity, until the liberating sexual relationship he has with Julia. Although both novels depict stringent measures of control, the possibility of rebellion is present in the worlds depicted in both novels, suggesting that despite the manipulation around subjectivity’s three main pillars, as identified by Gadamer, something else provides the impetus for the characters’ understanding of rebellion. Therefore, the study also analyses the characters’ pre-understandings, as explained by Nietzsche and Heidegger, as sources for a wider framework. Through the novels’ portrayals of rebellion, these pre-understandings are shown to complement and inform Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / English / MA (English) / Unrestricted

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