Dystopian fiction east and west : universe of terror and trial / Erika Gottlieb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gottlieb, Erika.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Science fiction--History and criticism.

Science fiction.

Dystopias in literature.

Totalitarianism and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca, N.Y. : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Gottlieb juxtaposes the Western dystopian genre with Eastern and Central European versions, introducing a selection of works from Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. She demonstrates that authors who write about and under totalitarian dictatorship find the worst of all possible worlds not in a hypothetical future but in the historical reality of the writer's present or recent past. Against such a background the writer assumes the role of witness, protesting against a nightmare world that is but should not be. She introduces the works of Victor Serge, Vassily Grossmam, Alexander Zinoviev, Tibor Dery, Arthur Koestler, Vaclav Havel, and Istvan Klima, as well as a host of others, all well-known in their own countries, presenting them within a framework established through an original and comprehensive exploration of the patterns underlying the more familiar Western works of dystopian fiction.

Contents:

What is justice? The answers of utopia, tragedy, and dystopia

Nineteenth-century precursors of the dystopian vision

The dictator behind the mask : Zamiatin's We, Huxley's Brave new world, and Orwell's Nineteenth eighty-four

Dictatorship without a mask : Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Vonnegut's Player piano, and Atwood's The handmaid's tale

The writer on trial: socialist realism and the exile of speculative fiction

The dystopia of revolutionary justice : Serge's Conquered city, Zazubrin's "The chip," and Rodionov's Chocolate

The legalization of terror: Platonov's The foundation pit, Ribakov's Children of the Arbat, and Koestler's Darkness at noon

Terror in war, terror in peace: Grossman's Life and fate, Tertz Sinyavski's The trial begins, and Daniel's This is Moscow speaking

Collective paranoia: the persecutor and the persecuted: Andzrejewski, Dery, Fuks, Hlasko, Orkeny, Vaculik, and Mrozek

Kafka's ghost: The trial as theatre: Klima's The castle, Karvas's The big wig, and Havel''s Memorandum

From terror to entropy : the downward spiral: Konwicki's A minor apocalypse, Dery's Mr G.A. in X and Zinoviev's The radiant future

Speculative fiction returns from exile : Dystopian vision with a sneer: Voinovich's Moscow 2042, Aksyonov's The island of Crimea, Dalos's 1985, and Moldova's Hitler in Hungary

Dystopia East and West: conclusion.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references: p. [305]-318.

ISBN:

0-7735-6918-9

OCLC:

123402024