Abstract

Scholars of utopian studies commonly note the recent surge in dystopian representations in written and visual narratives, reflecting the crisis-ridden dynamics of the contemporary moment. They investigate the meanings and significance of this phenomenon within literary, historical, and cultural frameworks. Patricia McManus's Critical Theory and Dystopia is one such notable contribution to the field, with its insightful comparisons among a selection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century dystopias. Her main concern is the form of dystopia, which, she explains, contains utopia as its "sedimented content" (1), as well as figurations of "things which are not even named by the dystopian texts themselves but the absence... Read More.