Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Phantasms Of Hope: The Utopian Function Of Fantasy Literature, Alexander C. Morgan
Phantasms Of Hope: The Utopian Function Of Fantasy Literature, Alexander C. Morgan
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Fantasy literature has long been considered an inherently conservative genre. However, Ernst Bloch’s Marxist theory of a utopian anticipatory consciousness and his concept of nonsynchronism recognize a progressive, utopian function within the archetypes and allegories of fairy tales, a precursor to modern fantasy. Bloch argues that archetypes are not static entities and can be repurposed to critique the world contemporary to a text’s production. Even archetypes produced under a past mode of production, like those used in fantasy, can therefore be anticipatory and utopian. By extending Bloch’s utopian function to include fantasy and integrating his philosophy with the historical-materialist hermeneutic …
Burying Dystopia: The Cases Of Venedikt Erofeev, Kurt Vonnegut, And Victor Pelevin, Natalya Domina
Burying Dystopia: The Cases Of Venedikt Erofeev, Kurt Vonnegut, And Victor Pelevin, Natalya Domina
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
One of the main things we have come to expect from a dystopian novel is the portrayal of an evil social structure. Such a text would aim to put reader in a position of a judge and/or warn him/her about the inevitability of an impending catastrophe (Zamyatin, Orwell, Huxley). This thesis focuses on how Venedikt Erofeev’s Moscow to the End of the Line, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and Victor Pelevin’s The Clay Machine-Gun respond to Dostoevsky’s prophetic dystopia and go against the grain of the genre, and, by doing so, redefine the genre itself.