Dystopic Literature, then and now: an itinerary in History and Fiction

Abstract

The present article reflects the renewed interest for dystopian fiction as a response to our economical and political scenario, from reflections found in Antonio Candido (1995) and Erich Fromm (1961) comments on the optimistic views of technological advancements and humanity, that animated the public debate in the 18th Century. In the 19th Century, Science Fiction was in its first steps and the observation of the increasing progress in technology versus the increase of social disparity would find its expression in dystopia. Already distant from the post-World War II, the diegetic scenarios that express a negative view of a very near authoritarian future, based in the control of society and suppression of individual liberties, would gain space in the literary world, in cinema, in TV series. Such is the case of the successful adaptation of Margareth Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), a novel we use as an example of this kind of dystopia.