English Literature A Level

Exploring dystopian fiction

Think of any novels you’ve read – or perhaps films you’ve seen – which are set in the future (or an alternative present). What kind of futuristic world is the writer trying to create?

Now conduct some research into dystopian fiction. These websites might help you, but feel free to explore other sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_and_dystopian_fiction

https://literarydevices.net/dystopia/

Take a look at the following for a bit more depth:
https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/freedom-or-oppression-the-fear-of-dystopia

Once you’ve conducted your research, please answer the following question:

• To what extent would you say the text(s) you considered could be categorised as dystopian literature?

Becoming a critical reader

One of the reasons universities and employers value A Level English Literature so highly, is that you learn to consider what you have read carefully before developing views of your own.

Read the following extract. It’s from the opening of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a text you will be studying on your A Level English Literature course:

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.

There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.

We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an after-thought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.

No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some trade-off, we still had our bodies. That was our fantasy. We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semi-darkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and touch each other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, and watching each other’s mouths. In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed:

Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.

© O.W. Toad Limited, 1979

Now answer these questions:

• Where is the extract set? What has changed over time?
• How are the women controlled and oppressed?
• What do you think might be the significance of the women touching ‘each other’s hands across space’ and whispering their names?
• What key pieces of information is the writer withholding?
• Can you identify any features of dystopian fiction?
• Did you find this an effective opening to a novel? Did it make you want to carry on reading? Why / why not?

Keep Reading

Reading is at the centre of the A Level English Literature course. Students enjoy developing their ability to read with greater insight and sensitivity. They also enjoy making connections between texts. Try to read as much fiction as you can in the coming months. Keep a brief reading record with the following headings:

• Why I chose this book
• What I like (or dislike) about this book
• What I find distinctive or interesting about the way the book is written

If you are unsure what to read next, here are a few suggestions we think you might like. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are other examples of dystopian fiction.

• Monica Ali, Brick Lane
• Margaret Atwood, Surfacing
• **Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
• **Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
• Albert Camus, The Stranger
• **Wilkie Collins, Armadale
• *Philip K. Dick, Electric Dreams
• **Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
• Sebastian Faulks, Engleby
• Aminatta Forna, The Memory of Love
• Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• **Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge
• *Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
• *Cormac McCarthy, The Road
• *George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
• **Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
• Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
• J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
• **Bram Stoker, Dracula
• Miriam Toews, A Complicated Kindness
• **H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

**These titles are all available as free e-texts online. Please read other books if you’re unable to get hold of any of the above list – they are just suggested titles and the most important thing is that you keep reading.