Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature

Memory of the Future

Carter F. Hanson

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English

Routledge
31 May 2023

Literature: history & criticism; Literary theory; Literary studies: general; Science fiction; Psychological theory & schools of thought; Cognition & cognitive psychology; Memory

For a genre that imagines possible futures as a means of critiquing the present, utopian/dystopian fiction has been surprisingly obsessed with how the past is remembered.

Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature: Memory of the Future examines modern and contemporary utopian/dystopian literature’s preoccupation with memory, asserting that from the nineteenth century onward, memory and forgetting feature as key problematics in the genre as well as sources of the utopian impulse. Through a series of close readings of utopian/dystopian novels informed by theory and dialectics, Hanson provides a case study history of how and why memory emerged as a problem for utopia, and how recent dystopian texts situate memory as a crucial mode of utopian agency. Hanson demonstrates that many modern and contemporary writers of the genre consider the presence of certain forms of memory as necessary to the project of imagining better societies or to avoiding possible dystopian outcomes.

By: Carter F. Hanson
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367536305
ISBN 10: 0367536307
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 31 May 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Introduction: Memory, Utopian Theory, Counter-Discourse Chapter One: A Brief History of Memory’s Emergence in Utopian Narratives Chapter Two: The Critical Utopia and Collective Memory Chapter Three: Children’s/Young Adult Dystopian Fiction and Cultural Amnesia Chapter Four: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy and the Dialectic of Trauma

Carter F. Hanson is Professor of English at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. He is the author of Emigration, Nation, Vocation: The Literature of English Emigration to Canada, 1825-1900 (Michigan State UP, 2009), as well as articles on utopian/dystopian literature and utopianism published in Extrapolation, Science Fiction Studies, Utopian Studies, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, and Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory.

Reviews for Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature: Memory of the Future

"""Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature: Memory of the Future offers a highly original, wide-ranging, theoretically informed discussion of the role of memory in utopian and dystopian literature. The book breaks new ground on various fronts by putting forward innovative readings of familiar texts in the context of a fascinating dialogue between utopian studies and memory studies. A noteworthy contribution to our understanding of utopias and dystopias."" – Sean Seeger, University of Essex, UK"