This collection of essays examines various forms of
dystopian fiction in literature, television, and digital games. It
frames the timely trend of dystopian fiction as a thematic field that
accommodates several genres from societal dystopia to apocalyptic
narratives and climate fiction, many of them examining the hazards of
science and technology to human societies and the ecosystem. These are
genres of the Anthropocene par excellence, capturing the dilemmas of the
human condition in the current, increasingly precarious epoch.

The
essays offer new interpretations of classical and contemporary works,
including the canonised prose of Orwell, Atwood and Cormac McCarthy,
modern pop culture classics like Battlestar Galactica, Fallout and
Hunger Games, and the work of Johanna Sinisalo, a pioneer of Finnish
speculative fiction. From Thomas Pynchon to Watership Down, the volume’s
multifaceted approach offers fresh perspectives to those already
familiar with existing research, but it is no less accessible for
newcomers to the ever-expanding field of dystopian studies.