Context's Role In Dystopian Novels

1157 Words3 Pages

Dystopias have been used for centuries as tools by authors to critique contemporary society. A dystopian text contains “images of a world worse than our own” (Grolier’s Multimedia Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, 2002) making it easier as a reader to relate to the dystopian function as we are able to readily critique errors in that world. Features include the “disenfranchising and enslaving [of] entire classes of citizens” (Grottlieb 2001), thus making dystopias a scaring but realistic version of our future worlds. Through the knowledge of oppressive societies, dystopian novels reveal the most shocking aspect of their text is the future being contingent on the present. This is demonstrated through context, political ideologies and personal …show more content…

More specifically, context shapes the text’s meaning allowing readers to see underlying messages in that dystopia and how this resonates within their own society. Robert Harris’ 1992 totalitarian novel Fatherland presents us with a confronting question in which context plays a crucial role in revealing oppression – what if the Nazi Party won the war? The protagonist Xavier March is a policeman investigating the murder of a harmless old man. Unbeknownst to him, this unravels into his questioning of the ‘Third Reich’s’ domination and the oppression demonstrated to hide the concentration camps of World War II. In this novel, the connotations associated with the context of 1939-1945 and the “Nazi camouflage of the Final Solution” (Fleming 1987) is a constant reminder to readers how close the dystopian society is to reality. Furthermore, Harris makes the reader consider the impact of choice through the context …show more content…

Strachey , 1962) it can be seen that the future of reality can be altered through decision made in the present. The knowledge of oppressive control within societies is revealed through the context, political ideologies and personal values, signifying that the future is contingent on the present. This revelation is the most shocking part of a dystopian text as it can reveal oppression within our own society.

Bibliography

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 2002, (CD-ROM), Grolier, New York City

Gottlieb, E 2001, Dystopian Fiction East and West, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Canada

Fleming, G 1987, Hitler and the Final Solution, University of California Press, London

Maclean, D 1998, ‘Freedom and Necessity, Ethics and Epistemology. Available from: [16 April 2016]

Robert Harris, 2016. Available from: . [16 April 2016]

Kringelback, M.L, Lehtonene, A., Squire, S., Harvey, A.G., Craske, M.G., Holliday I.E., Green, A.L., Aziz, T.Z., Hansen, P.C., Cornelissen, P.L. and Stein, A. (2008), ‘A Specific and Rapid Neural Signature for Parental Instinct’, PLOS One Available from: [18 April 2016]

Goldis, V 2012, ‘An introduction to utopia’, in Utopia versus Dystopia – a perfect Environment for a Perfect Existence: proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Humanity, History and Society, IPEDR vol. 34, IACSIT Press, Singapore, pp.

Open Document