Studying Dystopia in History Class

Why dystopia?

Utopian and dystopian studies comes from a deeply historical context whereby people of all walks of life began imagining possible worlds where political, economic, and social conditions were altered.  In United States history, utopian novels that were published during the antebellum age (1820s and 1830s) espoused the possibility to re-imagining social order.  Communities built by the Shakers and Oneidas lived out their utopian dreams.   Dystopian literature, burgeoning during the late 20th century reflected an increase in fear about political and economic turmoil.  Novels like 1984 and Brave New World emphasized the relationship between power, technology, individualism, and conformity.  Resistance and reform had a very different face after the social movements in the 1960s and 1970s.  Dystopian novels play with constructs of time, space, history, and geography.  The worlds seem so much like our own or at least what our world can be.  

While many of the novels written in the Cold War era reflect fears about conformity, dystopian novels written in the early 21st century engage these topics a little differently.  Surveillance and ideological repression look different in 2015 than it did at the height of the Cold War.  The battle between capitalism, socialism, and communism has been subsumed by neoliberalism and globalization.  One person standing up for what they believe triggered marches and protests that were televised around the country in the 1960s and now one Tweet or YouTube video goes viral where the world is now watching global affairs.

YA dystopian novels are unique in that they center on the actions of youth as they participate in resistance against totalitarian leaders.  Each novel's world is constructed on some kind of sameness or conformity.  The hero's or heroines never quite feel like they fit in with the communities expectations and they often find ways of escape expectation.  Rather than accepting societies norms, that main characters question their world and seek alternatives.

But no dystopian novel is "perfect,"  Some might say that the genre is itself a tool of resistance whereby authors offer social criticisms of our own world.  However, a deeper analysis could reveal that the novels only reinforce some of the underlying economic and social tensions that youth experience today.

• The novels, written by adults, still privilege adult perspectives.  Youth are looked down upon as being inexperienced and unable to lead.  The youth hero's and heroines still need adults to accomplish anything.
• Criticism about capitalism and consumerism in the novels seem disingenuous when considering the power of marketing, product placement,  and commodification.  The intertwining of political power and economics in the novels may seem to unravel, and yet youth readers are manipulated by the same system as publishing & production companies profit from youth buying power.
• While some of the novels discuss oppression & discrimination by showing inequity between people groups in the novels, there is a lack of representation of people of color and gender identity.  Most of the characters are white, wealthy, and heterosexual.  People of color are segregated and or are nowhere in the story.  Gender and sexual identity operate in a heteronormative world where marriage is between a man and a women and people are expected to take on traditional gender roles.

I believe that history teachers can use dystopian novels to help students see history in action.  Sometimes history curriculum seems boring or outdated.  Despite what some might say about the literary quality of some young adult novels, I find that dystopian fiction provides a doorway to connecting our students to our content.  The language and vocabulary is similar between the novels and history curriculum.  We can engage students in discussions about the past AND in imagining the future by integrating fiction into our classrooms.

Books vs. Films

After taking a Film & Literature course in college, I stopped making broad assumptions and arguments about whether or not the book or the movie was better.  Essentially, it is like comparing apples to oranges.  Privileging one over the other de-values both as artistic representations and tools of storytelling.  Are there times where I enjoy the book more than the film, yes.  But there are also films that do an amazing job in adapting novels so that my enjoyment and appreciation grows and changes.  We have to view media as separate because they each have different goals and achieve those goals using different tools.  We can study films in a similar way that we study novels by questioning narrative structure, format, characterization, and themes.  Novelists work with words whereas film makers use music, sounds, and color to tell a story.  

Questions to be asked of dystopia & history curriculum

Power

• Who is in power?
• How did that person/group/organization gain power?
• What methods does the power use to maintain its control?
• Who is excluded from power?
• What rights are stated/implied/ignored?

Knowledge

• Whose knowledge is privileged?
• ​What knowledge is preserved?  What knowledge is destroyed?
• Who controls history?
• How is information protected/stored/hidden?
• What value is placed on freedom of thought & independent thinking?
• What role does media play in regulating/mediating information?

Surveillance Culture

• What tools are used to gather information about people?
• What information is considered most valuable?
• What rights do people have to privacy?
• How is information used to "protect" or "serve" the community?

Codification & Discrimination

• How are people grouped or labelled?
• Are those labels self-identified?  Who decides on the labels?
• How are groups treated differently because of the labels?
• How are accepted identities reinforced and unacceptable identities ostracized or closeted?
• How are people groups represented/excluded?  How are those stances reinforced through behavior and cultural knowledge?

Post-Capitalism & Consumerism

• What role does production of goods and services play in the society?
• Who possesses wealth and how was it attained?
• How does the production of goods and services drive people's behavior?
• How was industry and technology shaped economic conditions?
• Who are the "haves" and the "have-nots"?
• How is knowledge and information commodified?

Novel ideas

Feed by M.T. Anderson

This novel, while futuristic for 2002 when it was written, strangely feels all too familiar.  The "feed" gets implanted into the spine so that a person can send a text message or purchase new clothes just by thinking.  Advertisements pop-up in the mind.  Brains get taken over by hackers.  The government  tracks thinking and purchasing.   School is for learning about technology.  Filet mignon is grown on fields where blood is pumped through irrigation lines.  Cars drive themselves.  But what happens when the feed is off?  Do people find being disconnected is liberating or is it frightening and lonely?

Matched series by Allie Condie

Cassia attends her matching ceremony where the Society chooses her potential husband using data collected regarding intelligence, aptitude, and behavior.  People are born in test tubes and Society kills people at 80.  Society controls everything from history, to storytelling, to music.  Only certain pieces of art are preserved and everything else is burned.  People do not know how to write because there is no need.  The world inside Society privileges the compliant and those who do not fall in line are sent outside the walls as aberrations.  Underground resistors memorize poems and songs to share.  A rebellion stirs outside the walls to overthrow the Society, but what will the new world look like?

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen is lives in a world where people are divided by economic class and race.  The haves and have-nots live in different districts and experience life differently.  To keep the districts in order, the Hunger Games presents an equitable way of sacrificing members of the community for utilitarian ends.  The militarized world of Panem depends on physical and emotional control.  President Snow uses propaganda to manipulate people into believing the world is as it should be.  But what happens when districts realize they too have power?

  ​Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

Tally Youngblood lives in a highly technological world where teenagers undergo plastic surgery to get "normalized."  People go from being "uglies" to "pretties" as a rite of passage.  Eventually teens can become "Middle-pretties" as adults with a job and later in life, a "crumblie" elderly person preparing for death.  Within Prettytown, people conform to societies rules.  Outside, there are people who refused to play along with society.  But what happens when Tally becomes a Pretty and learns about the world outside?  How does body image, body dysmorphia, & media affect one's self esteem and view of the world?  How does the government maintain control of its people through these surgeries and use science to experiment with social control?  What do people on the outside, the Rusties, think about Prettytown and its inhabitants?

Dystopian shortcomings

My final thoughts come just after seeing the final installment of the Hunger Games films that opened this weekend.  After reading 20+ dystopian novels (marketed for adults and youth), I have been left with one question: what happens after the rebellion?  Almost all of the novels focus on resistance efforts led by characters who do not agree with the government's actions.  But what is missing is any notion of HOW TO REBUILD.  People join resistance movements to fight for their rights.  Totalitarian governments are deposed.  Evil leaders are killed.  But the books and films always end there.  There is no transfer of power.  There is no explanation for what kind of society is re-imagined.  The heros and heroines go home and live their lives out of the spotlight.

This feels exactly like a traditional history classroom.  We spend time studying events of the past and do little to institute changes that will make the world more equitable.  We fail to act on our knowledge in creating a better world.  I love reading dystopian fiction because I get to engage in imaginative worlds that challenge me to think about our own.  But we can't stop at resisting.  We must also engage in creating and imagining.