The Thin Line Between Hell and Here: Dystopian Fiction under Neoliberalism

Abstract

The end of the Cold War and the global triumph of neoliberalism were accompanied by the evolution of certain themes in dystopian fiction. According to some of its advocates, such as Francis Fukuyama, neoliberalism's success signified the "end of history," understood as ideological evolution, since the decline of communism left Western liberal democracies without any major opposition in terms of global governing and discursive practices. This thesis critically compares neoliberal rhetoric concerning invisible power, the end of history, technology, freedom of consumption and the commodification of human relationships with the ideologies represented in four neoliberal dystopian works of fiction, namely Black Mirror, Feed, The Circle, and The Fat Years. These examples create a "one-dimensional" dystopian subject who is rendered incapable of possessing the utopian imagination necessary to organize political resistance, precisely as a result of the governance and discourse of neoliberalism.

Author Keywords: dystopia, dystopian fiction, dystopian subjectivity, neoliberalism, post cold war fiction, subjectivity

    Item Description
    Type
    Contributors
    Creator (cre): Turkmen, Sezen
    Thesis advisor (ths): Holdsworth, David
    Degree committee member (dgc): Mitchell, Liam
    Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
    Date Issued
    2017
    Date (Unspecified)
    2017
    Place Published
    Peterborough, ON
    Language
    Extent
    107 pages
    Rights
    Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
    Local Identifier
    TC-OPET-10485
    Publisher
    Trent University
    Degree
    Master of Arts (M.A.): Theory, Culture and Politics