Arya Aryan on Hilary Mantel, the woman-writer, and trauma
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Tag: dystopia
Reproducing the Patriarchal Anthropocene
Female reproductive rights are linked to environmental abuse, Beth Capo explores.
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Will 2017 be 1984?
As part of Birkbeck’s Arts Week 2017, we organised a panel titled "Will 2017 be 1984" (you can listen to a podcast recording of the panel here) which considered the uncanny relevance of Orwell’s novel…
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Jordan Krall’s Speculative Fiction
Speculative fiction is a paradox. Synonymous with science fiction and “genre literature,” it is also one of the most ancient modes of storytelling in literary history. One could easily identify Plato’s Atlantis…
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Litter, Landscape and The Road
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) presents a dystopian vision of a near-future world in which most organic vegetation has died and human life is becoming increasingly rare. It is not unusual for dystopian fiction to …
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The Allure of the 1980s
When we remember, represent or consume the recent past, we often do so through the alluring prism of nostalgia. In Ali Smith’s short story ‘astute, fiery, luxurious’…
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Making Art in Dystopia
When contemporary artists work alongside scientists with “wet hands” in the bioscience laboratory, the results can test both scientific and moral imaginations. New uses of living material raise multiple ethical issues, and a concern for future…
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