Defying the Dystopian: The Rise and Resilience of Young Adult Fiction
Insightful analysis of the enduring appeal of dystopian YA novels and their power to inspire creative solutions in a world of adversity.
The popularity of dystopian literature has gone through the roof in the last decade or so, especially in the young adult (YA) genre. This is not a new phenomenon, mind you. Dystopian literature has been a thing since the First World War, with classics like George Orwell’s _1984_ being one of its most notable contributions.
Dystopian literature is, essentially, a rebellion against utopian literature, where authors create perfect worlds that are, let’s face it, a little too good to be true. Dystopian literature, on the other hand, imagines a world where the current political and social trends are pushed to the extreme, creating a much darker world that is all too familiar. According to literary critic Scholes, dystopian YA fiction is defined as
“societies where the ideals for improvement have gone amok”.
So, it’s like they took the idea of improvement and thought,
“Hey, let’s just go crazy with it.”
The word “dystopia” has its roots in ancient Greek, with “dys” meaning “bad” and “topia” meaning “place”…
