Literature and Information

What is Dystopian Literature and Why Should We Teach It?

In order to teach this unit effectively, teachers must have a basic understanding of what dystopian literature is and why, in some ways, it is a reflection of our society’s environmental, political, and social state of being. First, it is important to understanding the complexities of a dystopian culture and how utopian culture can result in one.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “dystopia” as, “An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad.” ¹¹ Simply put, it is a futuristic, or present day place in which society is controlled in undesired ways. Wikipedia defines dystopia as, “The idea of a society generally of a speculative future, characterized by negative and anti-utopian elements varying from environmental, or political/social issues.” The word itself is derived from the Greek, “dys,” which means bad or difficult. “Topia,” is a place or landscape. But, how can a society become a dystopia?¹²

A “utopia” is an ideal or perfect society in present day or future times, but is thought to be unachievable or non-existing. It is a vision of a much-improved world not yet in existence but better than the society we currently live in. Though this very concept is revolutionary, “utopia” is often times referred to as “no place” because many of its characteristics are beyond actualization. While the events in adolescent dystopian literature are often times exaggerated forms of tyranny and suffering, at the core, there is truth in them.¹³

In our world, we know the suffering caused by utopias in history that were much better characterized as dystopias: Stalin’s Soviet Union, Maoist China, and of course, Nazi Germany. Existing in each society were oppressive governmental rule and the unfortunate “have-nots”, which led to death and destruction of the masses. So, history has shown us that utopias are dystopias in disguise: a wolf in sheep’s clothing or the wolf with sharp teeth, piercing eyes, and no sympathy for the sheep he hunts. The wolf’s utopia is the sheep’s dystopia or disguised one. This means that history has also proven that utopias, while justifiable in theory, are not sustainable in reality. Therefore, they are destined to fail.

So, why should students read and understand adolescent dystopian literature? Books are our way of examining the faults in our society and lives in comparison to the utopia we all deep down wish to achieve, though it is unachievable. Dystopian literature, specifically, helps us to realize the immoral nature of our society as well as its potential to change. Mankind has experienced oppression, slavery, war, death, and utter ruin that we never thought would come to pass. If books could have revealed the events of history before their arrival, we’d be reading more dystopian literature to learn more about historical dystopian events so that we could prevent further destruction of human society.

Further, while dystopian novels can dishearten even the most highly motivated human rights activist, there is truth hidden in the pages of dystopian literature that depicts a very unfortunate but inevitable future world. History has shown us that our governments and military are capable of creating oppressive laws and enforcing them, a reality that our students have or will come to accept with maturity and learning. Our society is far from perfect, and dystopian literature helps our students to acknowledge the imperfections in our world and analyze why they exist, if we’re headed for dystopian conflicts, and what we can do to thwart further contamination of our society.

While future improvements to society are integral to the sustainability of mankind, it is important to consider how students’ own lives motivate them to read and learn from dystopian literature. Adolescent readers are able to relate with characters and events and connect aspects of their lives to the novel. These connections are a particularly important part of adolescents’ experiences because they are going through a transition from childhood to adulthood. In this transition, adolescents experience similar conflicts with conformity, rebellion, and personal identity. Adolescents are able to recognize that there are other teenagers going through similar transitions and this allows them to come to terms with their place and purpose in our world. They finally begin to realize that this stage in life presents the best opportunity for identity exploration and their purpose in society. Adolescents finally begin to discover different possibilities for changing the world through integration of their own identities with their responsibilities to society and themselves.