Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction stands out in the contemporary cultural landscape, both in terms of best-selling popular culture products, notably the best-selling novels or blockbuster movies aimed at an YA audience, and increasingly in the high culture sphere. The former contempt of the academia for science fiction has led to a reassessment and “repackaging” by the writers of their works as belonging to the speculative fiction genre. The inner space science fiction, sometimes rebranded as dystopian, cli-fi and post-apocalyptic fiction has gradually moved away from the outer worlds of the hard sci-fi. Several interpretation keys can be discerned from the analysis of the dystopian genre’s profitable market, including collective anguish during what may currently seem to be the End Times, guilt for the climate collapse, spiritual masochistic pleasure, gender issues etc., keeping in mind, though, the obvious peril of oversimplification. The insertion of the love theme supports the marketable and profitable segments of the entertainment dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction. Cultural hegemony profits from the dystopian trend in fiction and, at the same time, adiaphorizes the meaningful messages which are supposed to be put forward by critical dystopias.
Authors: Universitatea din București, Facultatea de Litere, Mihai Robert Roșca
Institution: University of Bucharest
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407043305