The quest of identity in a modern dystopian novel
The quest of identity in a modern dystopian novel

Author: Line Schneider

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 19

ISBN-13: 334600161X

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Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: A Survey of British Literature, language: English, abstract: The question of real identity is often raised by readers while reading books concerning dystopian worlds and societies. This term paper will discuss the quest of identity and elements of the utopian contemporary school society described in a novel from this decade, titled "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. In the novel the protagonists have a shorter life span than regular human beings. This, and the fact that their lives have been planned and predetermined to one day become organ donors leads to the struggle of identity and what identity truly means. Furthermore, the paper will focus on the use of ambiguous terminology used in the novel and how it manipulates the reader’s emotions and impressions. Specific words are being used, which the reader does not immediately link to the words meant by the narrator. To analyse the novel on the aspects of the identity quest, Henri Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory and his thesis will form the basis of the work: Social groups are essential and crucial for an individual’s identity. The quest for identity always has been part of human nature. Just as imagining and fantasizing about perfect worlds and living in perfect conditions always has been. Humans enjoy visualizing a better place resulting from their dissatisfaction and disappointment in their societies. Not only utopias, also dystopias occupy the human mind. Both, ideal and non-ideal imagined worlds can help to analyse and improve one’s own and already existing world and society or also be identified as a warning against contemporary trends.

Who am I? Modern Dystopia and Identity Struggles in Kazuo Ishiguro’s "Never Let Me Go"
Who am I? Modern Dystopia and Identity Struggles in Kazuo Ishiguro’s

Author: Julia Rabbe

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 3346155986

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Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: Who am I? This is a question we frequently ask ourselves, which is not easy to answer. Human beings naturally try to answer the identity question and it is one of the essential processes of growing up. But if we imagine ourselves living in a world in which one’s whole life is predestined and it is impossible to escape from this destiny, it seems impossible to answer such a question. The dystopian novel “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro is set at a boarding school in England at the end of the twentieth century. The protagonists in the novel, who are growing up at the boarding school Hailsham, face the above-described problem. They are brought up healthy and kept away from every danger possible, to live the life they are supposed to live. They finish school, move in groups to farms where they have to work, they become carers temporarily, until they end up becoming donors of their vital organs. Around the time they have done their third or fourth donation, their short life will be completed. This leads to a struggle of finding identity and to the question, what identity really is. In this term paper, the question of how the characters deal with the predestination of their lives will be answered. It will be discussed, in which ways they try to build up an identity, even though they face some problems. The central thesis, therefore, is that the social groups the protagonists live in and identify themselves with, make an important contribution to the formation of their identity and the process of finding belonging.

Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought
Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought

Author: Adam Stock

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-26

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 131732692X

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Over the past few years, ‘dystopia’ has become a word with increasing cultural currency. This volume argues that we live in dystopian times, and more specifically that a genre of fiction called "dystopia" has, above others, achieved symbolic cultural value in representing fears and anxieties about the future. As such, dystopian fictions do not merely mirror what is happening in the world: in becoming such a ready referent for discussions about such varied topics as governance, popular culture, security, structural discrimination, environmental disasters and beyond, the narrative conventions and generic tropes of dystopian fiction affect the ways in which we grapple with contemporary political problems, economic anxieties and social fears. The volume addresses the development of the narrative methods and generic conventions of dystopian fiction as a mode of socio-political critique across the first half of the twentieth century. It examines how a series of texts from an age of political extremes contributed to political discourse and rhetoric both in its contemporary setting and in the terms in which we increasingly cast our cultural anxieties. Focusing on interactions between temporality, spatiality and narrative, the analysis unpicks how the dystopian interacts with social and political events, debates and ideas, Stock evaluates modern dystopian fiction as a historically responsive mode of political literature. He argues that amid the terrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, dystopian fiction provided a unique space for writers to engage with historical and contemporary political thought in a mode that had popular cultural appeal. Combining literary analysis informed by critical theory and the history of political thought with archival-based historical research, this volume works to shed new light on the intersection of popular culture and world politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars in literary studies, cultural and intellectual history, politics and international relations.

But in the Night We are All the Same
But in the Night We are All the Same

Author: Sally Hartin-Young

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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But In the Night We Are All the Same, a critical dystopian novel, explores the creation and perpetuation of power structures, gender identity, and desire. The protagonist, Lemon, is a member of the oppressed class. She lives in a nameless city where she and her peers are kept endlessly alive by "hospital machines," a technology that cures every illness and prolongs life. The ruling group (the Those That) uses mindcontrol technologies known as noodles and stroodles to compel the oppressed class to buy the items they see advertised and to make them perform various violent, sexual and degrading acts for the Those That's amusement. Although the people of the city dislike aspects of their lives, most worship and admire the Those That as much as they fear them. Lemon's partner and love interest Astrix, once a member of the Those That, has had his memory erased and must struggle to find out his identity and to come to terms with who he is once he remembers his past. Lemon and Astrix help each other to resist and to determine their identities. Like other modern dystopian novels, this one focuses on an individual's struggle to resist the society and ends with a hopeful conclusion that shows that a better society can exist in the future. Additionally, this novel uses a female protagonist to illustrate the ways in which a person can be oppressed in both gender-specific and non-gender-specific ways. It also illustrates the power structures that lie beneath social systems, and examines how people's desires can be manipulated into a form of social control.

Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults
Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults

Author: Balaka Basu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1136194762

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Winner of the Children’s Literature Association Edited Book Award From the jaded, wired teenagers of M.T. Anderson's Feed to the spirited young rebels of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, the protagonists of Young Adult dystopias are introducing a new generation of readers to the pleasures and challenges of dystopian imaginings. As the dark universes of YA dystopias continue to flood the market,Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers offers a critical evaluation of the literary and political potentials of this widespread publishing phenomenon. With its capacity to frighten and warn, dystopian writing powerfully engages with our pressing global concerns: liberty and self-determination, environmental destruction and looming catastrophe, questions of identity and justice, and the increasingly fragile boundaries between technology and the self. When directed at young readers, these dystopian warnings are distilled into exciting adventures with gripping plots and accessible messages that may have the potential to motivate a generation on the cusp of adulthood. This collection enacts a lively debate about the goals and efficacy of YA dystopias, with three major areas of contention: do these texts reinscribe an old didacticism or offer an exciting new frontier in children's literature? Do their political critiques represent conservative or radical ideologies? And finally, are these novels high-minded attempts to educate the young or simply bids to cash in on a formula for commercial success? This collection represents a prismatic and evolving understanding of the genre, illuminating its relevance to children's literature and our wider culture.

Trial of Identity
Trial of Identity

Author: Elsie Swain

Publisher:

Published: 2020-03-26

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13:

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About the Book 2154: It had been over a century since the world of homo-sapiens had been rewritten, and it all began when the illegal scientific organisation who called themselves as the Cult broke all rules to experiment on humans and create genetically-enhanced humans who harnessed the traits of the gene of the mammal combined with their human gene. Though, anthromorphs were still humans with special characteristics and abilities, their enhanced anatomy either provokes envy or awe among Homo-sapiens towards them. Advancement in Science had an inverse proportionate relationship with humanity, the barriers broken in the field of Science only created more barriers around the term 'HUMANITY'. Naive and isolated, Kate Parker believed that the solution to dealing all problems that she couldn't handle, lies in just ignoring them. Growing Up as the only child of two A-list Hollywood stars, limelight had always been like standing on the thresholds of a glorified prison cell. No secret remains hidden forever. As Kate begins her college years along with her childhood friends, the Allyson twins, in Vampextiats University, her introduction to Bianthromorph, James Taylor drives her on edge in a never-ending timeline. No matter which century we lived in, there is always a presence of differentiation and discrimination thriving in our society. Even among anthromorphs, bianthromorphs were always shunned due their fate of losing their humane mind when their their dual animalistic genes overpowered the human part. Every moment she watched James being shunned for his mere existence, she couldn't help but panic. Was it because she cared for him? She could no longer keep her usual clueless demeanour when he starts prying on things that unravel her buried secrets unearthly giving her an unknown sense of belonging. Was it because she was scared he knew something about that he shouldn't have? What did the bot who was isolated by everyone have against the girl who isolated herself? Most Of All, how she was going to handle it when The Cult starts targeting her secret as their key to achieve their Goal? How was she going to discover herself in a world which was failing to distinguish between right and wrong? How was one supposed to find themselves in a world burning to erupt in chaos?

Cosmonaut Keep
Cosmonaut Keep

Author: Ken MacLeod

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1429977159

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Ranging from a gritty near-future Earth to a distant alien world, Ken MacLeod's Cosmonaut Keep is contemporary science fiction at its highest level.A visionary epic filled with daring individuals seeking a place for themselves in a vast, complex, and enigmatic universe. Matt Cairns is a 21st-century outlaw Programmer who takes on the shady jobs no one else will touch. Against his better judgment, he accepts an assignment to crack the Marshall Titov, a top-secret orbital station operated by the European Space Agency. But what Matt will discover there will propel him on an extraordinary and quite unexpected journey. Gregor Cairns is an exobiology student and descendant of one of Terra Nova's first families. Hopelessly infatuated with a lovely young trader's daughter, he is unaware that his research partner, Elizabeth, has fallen in love with him. Together, Gregor and Elizabeth confront the great work his family began three centuries earlier-to rediscover the secret of interstellar travel. Cosmonaut Keep is a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults
Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults

Author: Balaka Basu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1136194754

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Winner of the Children’s Literature Association Edited Book Award From the jaded, wired teenagers of M.T. Anderson's Feed to the spirited young rebels of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, the protagonists of Young Adult dystopias are introducing a new generation of readers to the pleasures and challenges of dystopian imaginings. As the dark universes of YA dystopias continue to flood the market,Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers offers a critical evaluation of the literary and political potentials of this widespread publishing phenomenon. With its capacity to frighten and warn, dystopian writing powerfully engages with our pressing global concerns: liberty and self-determination, environmental destruction and looming catastrophe, questions of identity and justice, and the increasingly fragile boundaries between technology and the self. When directed at young readers, these dystopian warnings are distilled into exciting adventures with gripping plots and accessible messages that may have the potential to motivate a generation on the cusp of adulthood. This collection enacts a lively debate about the goals and efficacy of YA dystopias, with three major areas of contention: do these texts reinscribe an old didacticism or offer an exciting new frontier in children's literature? Do their political critiques represent conservative or radical ideologies? And finally, are these novels high-minded attempts to educate the young or simply bids to cash in on a formula for commercial success? This collection represents a prismatic and evolving understanding of the genre, illuminating its relevance to children's literature and our wider culture.

Feed
Feed

Author: M. T. Anderson

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: 2010-05-11

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 0763651559

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Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains. Winner of the LA Times Book Prize. For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play around with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who knows something about what it’s like to live without the feed-and about resisting its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a brave new world - and a hilarious new lingo - sure to appeal to anyone who appreciates smart satire, futuristic fiction laced with humor, or any story featuring skin lesions as a fashion statement.

First Platoon
First Platoon

Author: Annie Jacobsen

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1524746665

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A powerful story of war in our time, of love of country, the experience of tragedy, and a platoon at the center of it all. This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly nineteen-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the U.S. Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world. First Platoon is an American saga that illuminates a transformation of society made possible by this new technology. Part war story, part legal drama, it is about identity in the age of identification. About humanity—physical bravery, trauma, PTSD, a yearning to do right and good—in the age of biometrics, which reduce people to iris scans, fingerprint scans, voice patterning, detection by odor, gait, and more. And about the power of point of view in a burgeoning surveillance state. Based on hundreds of formerly classified documents, FOIA requests, and exclusive interviews, First Platoon is an investigative exposé by a master chronicler of government secrets. First Platoon reveals a post–9/11 Pentagon whose identification machines have grown more capable than the humans who must make sense of them. A Pentagon so powerful it can cover up its own internal mistakes in pursuit of endless wars. And a people at its mercy, in its last moments before a fundamental change so complete it might be impossible to take back.