Term of Award

Spring 2025

Degree Name

Master of Arts in English (M.A.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of English

Committee Chair

Kendra Parker

Committee Member 1

Joe Pellegrino

Committee Member 2

Amanda Konkle

Committee Member 3

Jane Rago

Abstract

Dystopian Fiction as Liberatory Practice, a title inspired by bell hooks’ “Theory as Liberatory Practice,” is a proposal for an English 2090 course that focuses on dystopian theory. This class is centered on The Nine Symptoms of Dystopian Theory, which I developed using multiple theoretical models including Afrofuturist Reading Practices, Marxist theory, and feminist, gender, and sexuality theories in conjunction with my own observations about the genre. Dystopian theory is a nine-step reading process that I have developed to reframe any text as dystopian. It is possible to argue that any text is dystopian using this process because, in any society with a power structure, there is always a group of people who, through marginalization and oppression, will experience the society as dystopian. This proposed reading process emphasizes the social critique of real-world power structures that dystopian fiction is known for. This reading process is applied to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) as an example of the Diagnosing a Dystopia final project. By focusing on dystopian theory, Dystopian Fiction as Liberatory Practice aims to foster student academic confidence, argumentation, and critical thinking skills. Dystopian Fiction as Liberatory Practice includes three films and three novels: The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel (2019) by Margaret Atwood, Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler, The Power (2016) by Naomi Alderman, Wall-E (2008) directed by Andrew Stanton, The Host (2013) directed by Andrew Niccol, and The Hunger Games (2012) directed by Gary Ross. Students will practice using The Nine Symptoms in ongoing classroom Socratic-Seminar-style discussion before Diagnosing a Dystopia for their final project.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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