Module Directory

A utopia is an imagined social order in which human flourishing has either been perfected or realised to an exceptionally high degree. A dystopia, by contrast, is a radically dysfunctional society in which the lives of the inhabitants are significantly impaired, damaged, or otherwise undesirable. In this module, we will study nine landmarks from the history of dystopian fiction and cinema, beginning in the early twentieth century and ending in the early twenty-first.

Topics and issues addressed in the module include but are not limited to, authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship, consumerism, the culture industry, Africanfuturism, reproductive rights, feminist utopias, genetic engineering, cloning, artificial intelligence, and global warming. The dystopias will be considered from a range of perspectives: social, cultural, historical, political, and philosophical, as well as in terms of their bearing on our own contemporary moment.

The aims of this module are:

• To foster students’ critical thinking by inviting them to consider how and in what ways societies may become dysfunctional. Through a close consideration of nine major literary and cinematic dystopias, students will reflect on what such fictional scenarios can teach us about society, culture, history, politics, and the pursuit of the good life in the modern world.


• To acquire or deepen your knowledge of a range of texts, from literary classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) to more recent works in other media, such as Caryl Churchill’s play A Number (2002) and Bong Joon-ho’s film Snowpiercer (2013).

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Display a detailed knowledge of the genre of dystopian fiction.


2. Appreciate some of the main ways in which societies can become dysfunctional.


3. Approach their own historical moment from a critical perspective informed by dystopian fiction,


4. Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to engage in intellectual debates around the issues raised by dystopian fiction.

The module syllabus consists of nine dystopian texts: four novels, three films, a novella, and a play. Some of these are established classics whilst others are more recent additions to the genre. The first week of the module is an introductory class, during which we’ll consider the history of the concept from which ‘dystopia’ derives, namely that of ‘utopia’. Examples will be drawn from the work of Plato, Thomas More, Karl Marx, William Morris, and numerous others.

In the second week we turn to a text sometimes regarded by critics not so much as a dystopia but rather as an ‘anti-utopia’: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), a chilling vision of a future social order maintained through genetic engineering and consumerism. This is followed by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which depicts a totalitarian regime where ‘thoughtcrime’ is punishable by death and state surveillance reaches into the most intimate aspects of its citizens’ lives.

These two classic novels are followed by a major screen dystopia: Stanley Kubrick’s disturbing (1971) reworking of Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange, in which an alienated young offender in a near-future dystopian Britain has his behaviour reprogrammed via a controversial new psychological technique.

In the fifth class, we’ll read a little-known and, until 2023, out of print dystopian novella: They by the trailblazing queer author and publisher Kay Dick, whose oblique and eerie narrative describes a near-future Britain in which artistic expression and individuality are violently suppressed.

The next text on the module is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), a work of speculative fiction in which a totalitarian theocracy has overthrown the U.S. government and ‘Handmaids’, members of a female underclass, are required to bear children on behalf of the upper-class ‘Wives’. Our fourth and final novel is Octavia Butler’s celebrated Africanfuturist text Parable of the Sower (1993), which recounts the origins of the fictional religion of ‘Earthseed’ amidst a civilisation on the brink of collapse.

In the eighth week, we turn to The Matrix (1999), written and directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski. This science fiction film envisages a dystopia in which, in the aftermath of a catastrophic global conflict, artificial intelligence controls the world and humanity has been enslaved by its own technology. Continuing with the theme of technology, in the penultimate week we read Caryl Churchill’s play A Number (2002), which powerfully dramatises some of the issues raised by genetic engineering and the prospect of human cloning.

Finally, Bong Joon-ho’s critically-acclaimed film Snowpiercer (2013) explores the divided social order which emerges after a failed attempt to reverse global warming produces a new ice age.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour class per week.