Dystopian Literature as Social Evolution

             This post is a summary of a literary analysis of dystopian literature with the incomplete title above and was published in 2015 at http://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=stu_honor

            In popular culture today, the dystopian literature is experiencing a surge in popularity that is infused with a fervent intensity. Since the publication of, The Hunger Games, dystopians novels have become exceptionally popular, spawning a release of blockbuster movies adaptations and new dystopians series. The popularity of these novels shows an interest in rebellion and revolution, ideas that build the core of dystopians fictions as a genre. The novels provide the possibility of social change in truly horrible societies, thus bringing ideas about social change into young consciousness. These pop culture texts have the potential to develop an examination of society through literary analysis. Literature can be used to ask questions about society, and the development of a better society, because of the way it reflects and questions cultural understandings of social justice, literature can interact more concretely with our ability to work for a better society. Rooted in the history of human rights literature and using the Hunger Games' protagonist Katniss Everden as a model of social change evolution. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, social justice is, "the objective of creating a fair and equal society on which each individual matters, their rights are recognized and protected, and decisions are made in ways that are fair and honest."  The desire for social justice is the desire to live in a world without oppression and inequality, where individuals are able to participate and be valued in a society no matter what identities they hold. Elizabeth S. Goldberg and Alexandra S. Moore's article "Meditation on a Fractured Terrain: Human Rights  and Literature" established the idea a reading practice for human rights that, "can attend to their material and historical context without instrumentalizing the aesthetic in service to those contexts". A social justice reading of literature aims for a similar practice of reading texts with reference to their ability to establish questions of social change. Literary critics argue not only for the important work literature can do, but for the kind of thinking literature can inspire within readers. According to Greg Mullins' essay "Labors of Literature and Human Rights," readers experience sympathetic emotions of empathy and compassion that work on rationality to "build the human capacity to make sound judgments." Readers, from their experience with literature, will become fairer in their understanding of ethical action. James Dawes attributes these sympathetic emotions to shared inner feelings and desires, a concept he attributes strongly to the form of the novel. Characters in novels define the human as an individual, independent being that is defined by inner feelings that humans implicity share. This understanding leads to the conceptions of natural, equal, and universal human rights based on the inner similarity of our emotions. In the past twenty-five years, literary studies has shown an interesting development in its relation to human rights. Literary theorists argue for the potential for literature to relate to and help readers understand contemporary human rights issues. Literature in human rights circles can be used as a tool for developing a deeper understanding of human rights abuses and for healing those who have experienced the violent loss of their human rights. Literary critics are in a prime position to understand the complexity of abuses and teach others how to empathize with this broader human question. Making these types of arguments about the use of literature in differing contexts, literary critics are calling for a social change in the understanding of how literature can be used. Humans have been dreaming of worlds better than their own since early history, this is a universal human desire. Dystopian fiction has played into these desires. Dystopian works by authors like George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley and Margaret Atwood connect deeply to cultural and social problems and the warning about what would happen if we did not act to change the world around us. Issues of government surveillance, totalitarianism, and oppressive power structures are common. In their own way, characters in dystopian texts attempts to rebel against the system, whether from a personal rejection of the power structure, or in a way that directly stands up against the structure and creates a new society. In the end, whether or not the character is successful, the individuals questioning of power hope to develop, as the reader can see the potential for change. Dystopian worlds take the impulse towards utopianism and use that world to create a warning about the future. The dystopian world relies on the specific problems of the present to invoke a warning about the future that could develop. The world generally has the appearance of semblance and order, but it soon is revealed that the world contains serious power imbalances, governmental control, or lack of resources. The situation mirrors certain elements of modern society in such a way that the reader can recognize the problem and starts to critically engage with them, resulting in a desire toward change in their own world. Embedded in the sense of warning is an impulse toward hope in the future for our own society. The characters in dystopian texts typically have the ability to attempt to engage with a possible solution for their terrible society. Thus, even if the heroines are unsuccessful, the reader can envision themselves resisting the dystopian society and escaping from a future like the protagonists. Adolescent readers have been exposed to dystopian fiction for years in ways that encompassed both the power imbalances and the rebellion along with elements of adventure and romance. This allowed readers to become a part of those dystopian worlds and live out their own anxieties and lack of power by watching characters launch rebellions against worlds that strived to push them down. The popularity of the texts resonates with readers in a way that shows a desire for change, although the success and failure of the rebellion in these texts takes place in a separate realm. By examining the ways that social change occurs in these texts, the lead protagonists can model instances of activism, showing how an evolution toward social change can occur within a protagonist that can apply to the readers understanding of social change. A major element of adolescent is "adjusting to a worthy way of life" which requires an adolescent to examine values, beliefs, attitudes, and ideas into a coherent structure that will allow them to develop their own understanding of the world that reflect their own priorities while "accepting standards and values of his society". Literature can clearly serve as an experimental zone in this process of discovery. Literature has the potential to be responsible for developing an understanding of politics and society in a way that has readers exploring social change more in depth. Current dystopian novels provide a phetora of examples of characters that rebel against their oppression in a way that creates a social change. The protagonist of Hunger Games is an interesting subject of examination, because she has a dramatic evolution in her relationship to social change. The evolution of Katniss' relationship to social change models a way for adolescent readers to begin to understand the process of developing social change movements that can allow them to think about their own activism. The massive popularity of the novels suggest an interest in exploring rebellion further in terms of creating change in the world. Katniss acts as a canonical model of how an individual can inspire a change in the world through a personal evolution. Divergent series stars is another strong, defiant female protagonist, but Tris begins the novel already having experienced her own evolution in understand that she can question the power structure and cause a revolution against injustice. The potential to inspire people toward acts of social change is not insignificant, as within days of the writing of this paper, students in Bangkok protested a military coup using the three-fingered salute and were arrested for the use of that symbol. The potential for change is apparent, but the connection of the novel as an example of a broader change of social justice literature could use texts as models of social justice in the broader culture. By critiquing and understanding the movements more deeply, protagonists like Katniss have the potential to inspire the next generation to accomplish more instances of social change.