The Construction of Plausible Futures in Dystopian Literature: A Theoretical Approach from Social and Cultural Semiotics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19137/anclajes-2023-2714Keywords:
Literature, Dystopia, Semiotics, Possible worlds, Literary genresAbstract
Dystopian fiction is a discursive genre made up of cultural products (literary texts, movies, series) aimed at producing a particular type of effects of sense in the model reader: ideally, in consuming them, readers will be capable of conducting a critical evaluation of their socio-political circumstances. Thus, dystopian fiction – which is a fictional discourse – aims at being the source of socio-political change through the intervention in the discursive sphere of the non-fictional. This article approaches the genre of dystopian fiction in literature from a semiotic perspective. Specifically, it focuses on studying the type of imagination and construction of possible worlds that define it. The thesis it presents is that dystopian fiction is characterised by a construction of futures that are plausible, that is, that have an anchorage in reality as it is and are therefore viable,
unlike what happens in science fiction.
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