Dans les méandres de la littérature dystopique : le pouvoir de l’art contre l’art du pouvoir
In the Meanders of Dystopian Literature: The Power of Art versus the Art of Power

Author(s): Kawthar Ayed
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Anticipation; dystopia; totalitarianism; art; dissent
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author examines the distortion of the past and the perversion of art in works of speculative dystopian fiction. Without history, there is no longer a past or a future; only the present persists as a perpetual replication of the same structures. In “1984”, everything is constantly rewritten in minute detail. In “Globalia”, the system wages a fierce war against history. Art is either recuperated or condemned to burn at the stake of state power (“Fahrenheit 451”). However, discovering art objects from past times and reading literary works signal a change of course which raises conscience and even leads to acts of resistance. In dystopian speculative literature, resistance acquires a symbolic dimension: Despite reigning darkness, there seems to appear a gleam of hope thanks to art and to literature.

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