Dystopian fiction east and west [[electronic resource] ] : universe of terror and trial / / Erika Gottlieb

• Autore: Gottlieb Erika
• Pubblicazione: Montreal, Que., : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (334 p.)
• Disciplina: 809.3/9372
• Soggetto topico: Fiction - 20th century - History and criticism; Science fiction - History and criticism; Dystopias in literature; Totalitarianism and literature
• Note generali: Includes index.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-318) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: What is justice? The answers of utopia, tragedy, and dystopia -- Nineteenth-century precursors of the dystopian vision -- The dictator behind the mask : Zamiatin's We, Huxley's Brave new world, and Orwell's Ninteenth eighty-four -- Dictatorship without a mask : Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Vonnegut's Player piano, and Atwood's The handmaid's tale -- The writer on trial: socialist realism and the exile of speculative fiction -- The dystopia of revolutionary justice : Serge's Conquered city, Zazubrin's "The chip," and Rodionov's Chocolate -- The legalization of terror: Platonov's The foundation pit, Ribakov's Children of the Arbat, and Koestler's Darkness at noon -- Terror in war, terror in peace: Grossman's Life and fate, Tertz Sinyavski's The trial begins, and Daniel's This is Moscow speaking -- Collective paranoia: the persecutor and the persecuted: Andzrejewski, Déry, Fuks, Hlasko, Örkény, Vaculik, and Mrozek -- Kafka's ghost: The trial as theatre: Klima's The castle, Karvas's The big wig, and Havel''s Memorandum -- From terror to entropy : the downward spiral: Konwicki's A minor apocalypse, Déry's Mr G.A. in X and Zinoviev's The radiant future -- Speculative fiction returns from exile : Dystopian vision with a sneer: Voinovich's Moscow 2042, Aksyonov's The island of Crimea, Dalos's 1985, and Moldova's Hitler in Hungary -- Dystopia East and West: conclusion.
• Sommario/riassunto: Gottlieb juxtaposes the Western dystopian genre with Eastern and Central European versions, introducing a selection of works from Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. She demonstrates that authors who write about and under totalitarian dictatorship find the worst of all possible worlds not in a hypothetical future but in the historical reality of the writer's present or recent past. Against such a background the writer assumes the role of witness, protesting against a nightmare world that is but should not be. She introduces the works of Victor Serge, Vassily Grossmam, Alexander Zinoviev, Tibor Dery, Arthur Koestler, Vaclav Havel, and Istvan Klima, as well as a host of others, all well-known in their own countries, presenting them within a framework established through an original and comprehensive exploration of the patterns underlying the more familiar Western works of dystopian fiction.
• Titolo autorizzato: Dystopian Fiction East and West
• ISBN: 0-7735-6918-9
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910783403103321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II