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  • © 2022

The Language of Dystopia

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Takes an innovative approach to categorising the dystopian genre

  • Provides the first comprehensive stylistic analysis of 21st century dystopian literature

  • Includes a discussion of dystopia across evolving and emerging platforms such as video games, digital fiction

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Literature and Style (PSLLS)

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eBook USD 109.00
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  • ISBN: 978-3-030-93103-2
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Hardcover Book USD 139.99
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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. Towards a Poetics of Dystopia

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 1-32
  3. Language in Dystopia

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 33-60
  4. Building Dystopian Worlds

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 61-91
  5. Reading Dystopian Minds

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 93-124
  6. Dystopian Ethics

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 125-155
  7. Unreliability and Dystopian Refraction

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 157-185
  8. Reconceiving the Dystopian Genre

    • Jessica Norledge
    Pages 187-210
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 211-244

About this book

This book presents an extended account of the language of dystopia, exploring the creativity and style of dystopian narratives and mapping the development of the genre from its early origins through to contemporary practice. Drawing upon stylistic, cognitive-poetic and narratological approaches, the work proposes a stylistic profile of dystopia, arguing for a reader-led discussion of genre that takes into account reader subjectivity and personal conceptualisations of prototypicality. In examining and identifying those aspects of language that characterise dystopian narratives and the experience of reading dystopian fictions, the work discusses in particular the manipulation and construction of dystopian languages, the conceptualisation of dystopian worlds, the reading of dystopian minds, the projection of dystopian ethics, the unreliability of dystopian refraction, and the evolution and hybridity of the dystopian genre.


Keywords

  • Cognitive Stylistics
  • Reader Experience
  • 21st Century Literature
  • Dystopian Worlds
  • Dystopian Literature
  • Dystopian Minds
  • Hybridity
  • H. G. Wells
  • Margaret Atwood
  • J.G. Ballard
  • Aldous Huxley
  • Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Ursula Le Guin
  • P.D. James
  • Emily St John Mandel
  • George Saunders
  • George Orwell
  • Kurt Vonnegut

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of English, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Jessica Norledge

About the author

Jessica Norledge is part of the Applied English Team at the University of Nottingham, UK, where she teaches across Literary Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. She specialises in the cognitive poetics of emotion and the language of dystopia, having published on the dystopian short story, dystopian epistolary, dystopian minds, and the experience of reading dystopian fiction.

Bibliographic Information

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-030-93103-2
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)