摘 要

西方文学中的反乌托邦主题由来已久，而作为一种独立成熟的文体，反乌托邦文学则是在二十世纪三十年代正式登上世界文坛。自此，凭借其对后现代性及其异化的另类诠释，反乌托邦科幻文学及其电影改编绽放异彩、倍受关注。然而，近三十余年以来，主流反乌托邦科幻文学对后现代性所衍生的新问题显得无所适从，而且其电影改编对异化与集权主义进行高倍凸显的呈现方式日趋单调，逐渐导致受众的审美疲劳，失去吸引力、滑出学术焦点。与此同时，青春文学以其探索内心、发现自我的特色，对后现代语境中的个体与他者之相关性和认同感提出了一种内省式诠释，从而异军突起，成为新的焦点。

基于这两种母文体的优点与特色，反乌托邦青春文学应运而生。这一新文体将主流反乌托邦科幻的灭世假设前提与青春文学的自我认同探索相融合，将主人公设置在绝境中展开发现自我的心路历程，尝试解析认同危机和异化问题。自2001年起，此类文学的电影改编一直颇受追捧，大获赞赏，赢得了文学批评界和主流受众的肯定与接纳。此论文旨在通过对比主流反乌托邦科幻与反乌托邦青春文学及其电影改编的特点之异同，分析后者的创作意图和目标受众期待的流变，从而阐释反乌托邦青春文学崛起的社会、文化、环境、心理因素以及对青少年受众的建设性影响

关键词：反乌托邦；青春文学；人性异化；女英雄；爱情

Abstract

The theme of dystopia has been utilized in western literature for many decades. Dystopian literature as an independent and mature genre, emerged in 1930s, mainly as a response to political and socio-economic shifts. Thence, by its unconventional interpretation to postmodernity, dystopian literature and its film adaptation have attracted increasing attention and enjoyed an extensive influence. The past three decades, however, witnessed a decline of the popularity of dystopian literature, mostly due to its confinement in modernity from which new problems evolved as well as the aesthetic fatigue caused by the overstatement of alienation and totalitarianism. Accordingly, the mainstream dystopian literature has gradually slipped out of academic focus since the new millennium. Meanwhile, Young Adult (YA) literature, became popular in the Post-modern era with an emphasis on self-discovery and self-identity. Owing to its introspective exploration of Self versus Otherness and the identity, this genre has gained a strong backing from academics, authors, and YA readers.

This striking rise of YA Dystopian literature has gained much praise via a metabolic incorporation of these two parent genres, Dystopian and YA literature. This new subgenre integrated the Post-Apocalyptic predisposition of a mainstream dystopia into the YA literature featuring self-discovery. By setting the protagonist on an apocalyptic road to probe the self, YA literature attempts to analyze the identity crisis and alienation in a different fashion. Ever since 2001, YA Dystopian literature, especially with the related adapted film versions, has reinvented itself as a popular trend and, surprisingly, accomplished receptive aesthetic value both from critics and audiences as well.

By a comparative analysis of the mainstream and YA Dystopian literature and their film adaptation, this thesis aims to investigate the underlying purpose and messages of authors, clarify the expectation on readers, and expound the social, cultural, environmental and psychological factors of its rise and the constructive implications for young readers and audiences.

Key Words: dystopia; YA literature; human nature alienation; female heroic, romance

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Defining Dystopia 1

1.2 The Development of Adapted Dystopian Science Fiction 1

1.3 The Outline 2

2 Common Elements between Mainstream and Young Adult Dystopian Films 3

2.1 The Abuse of Science and Technology 3

2.2 Totalitarianism 6

2.3 Alienation of Human Nature. 7

3 New Elements in Film Adaption of YA Dystopian Fictions 9

3.1 Return of Virtue via Female Hero Image 9

3.2 Realistic Portrayal of Romance 10

4 Discussion: Why does Yystopia Become So Dominated by the Young and Female? 13

4.1 Teen’s Rebellion amp; Self-discovery 13

4.2 Respond the Deep-stated Social Need and Anxiety 13

5 Conclusion 14

5.1 A Shift towards Teen Protagonists, Especially Females and Minorities 14

5.2 A Shift towards Self-discovery 15

5.3 A Shift towards Hope and Balance 15

5.4 A Shift towards Teaching instead of warning 15

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

A Comparative Analysis to the Dystopian Theme in Western Mainstream and Young Adult Adapted Science Fictions

1 Introduction

1.1 Defining Dystopia

A dystopia is a future world that extends and distorts modern day issues into an inexhaustible and dehumanized state in which controls have been forced upon society and its inhabitants through social and physical limitations that restrict many aspects of life (Cart 103; Spisak 55); dystopian literature, then, is part of the category of speculative fiction that depicts a dystopia with hypothetical situations “to motivate a generation on the cusp of adulthood” (Cart 103; Basu, Broad, and Hintz 1).

1.2 The Development of Adapted Dystopian Science Fiction

Before integrated into a subgenre of science fiction films, “dystopia” first appeared via the medium of literature dating back to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and many more texts that influenced the genre of dystopian literature (Ames 3). These mainstream dystopian works—written for adult readers—are centered on surveillance, fear of information and aging, and numbing the realities of life to name a few of the trends. These novels emerged in the middle of the twentieth century as a response to political, economic, and cultural shifts. Anxieties regarding the place of individual freedom within often repressive and warring nation states led these authors to speculate on how restrictions on the individual might impact the world on a larger scale.

With the transformation of literature, film industry especially science fiction film began to enter the realm of dystopia. From these movies, we would find the most fundamental drawbacks of the futuristic society, such as political system defects, detriments of technological abuse, environmental pollution and resource depletion. The popularity of Nineteen Eighty-Four adapted from George Orwell’s novel of the same title marked that film industry was involved in the spectrum of dystopia. In many later science fiction movies, “dystopia” was completely conveyed by imagination. In these films, the worries about “perfect world” was expressed through a variety of settings.

Entering into the 21st century, YA Dystopian literature is a trend that is taking the nation by storm. Since September 11, 2001, the genre has gained a strong backing from academics, authors, and YA readers. After Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (2008), however, YA Dystopian literature has become the forefront of teen reading, especially with the recently adapted film versions of the widely renowned trilogy.

1.3 The Outline

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one serves a brief introduction to the development of dystopian science fiction film. Chapter two demonstrates some common themes between western mainstream and YA adapted dystopian science fiction in terms of the abuse of technology, totalitarianism and alienation of human nature. Chapter three investigates the new elements, female heroic image and romance, in YA adapted dystopian fiction. Chapter four explores the question “why does dystopia become so dominated by the young and female?”. Chapter five gives a conclusion to this thesis.

2 Common Elements between Mainstream and Young Adult Dystopian Films

2.1 The Abuse of Science and Technology

Herbert Marcuse once launched a strong attack on technological civilization, and he thought “the advancement of technology = the growth of social wealth = the expansion of slavery”(Marcuse,1964) Though his opinion is not comprehensive enough, it to a certain extent shares similarities with dystopian writers. The setting of most dystopian stories is usually a futuristic progressive society with highly developed science and technology, however under the surface of progressive society, many fundamental drawbacks is lurking. The abnormal development of science and technology is threatening human’s existence. The following content shows a detailed analysis to the detriments brought forth by the abuse of science and technology in the movies of Blade Runner and The Hunger Games.

Blade Runner (1982)is a science fiction film adapted from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. It is a great example of satire of technology. It is set in the futuristic Los Angeles in the year of 2019. Specialized robots are developed to act as slaves on an off world colony. These robots are called Replicants. This is because they are similar to human beings yet created without emotions. The plot focuses on six replicants led by Roy Batty flee from their colony to earth to find a way to expend their lifespan, and those replicants are declared illegal and Blade Runners are ordered to “retire” them. Rick Deckard, is the man who take on the assignment to hunt them down. During his investigations, Deckard begins a relationship with Rachael, an advanced replicant who develops her own human emotional response. From the bloody scene that Roy kills Tyrell as easily as crushes an ant, it’s not difficult to understand that faced with replicants’ revenge triggered by human beings themselves, humankind has to pay for it. In belief, one of the messages conveyed in the film is the high alert and serious criticism to the crisis of human survival led by the abnormal modern scientific development. Some people may think that the plot in the movie is purely fictional and it won't happen in the real world. However, the plots that clone man develops human emotion and attacks humankind even occupies the earth are based on the reality and just added with writers’ rich imagination. That is not unfounded conjecture, but a powerful prediction. From the history of the development of science and technology, some evidences can be found to support the opinion. In the year of 1996, the first clone sheep Dolly was born in the world. This is a major scientific achievement as it demonstrated that the DNA from adult cells, despite having specialized as one particular type of cell, can be used to created an entire organism. With the cloning of Dolly, human cloning became a hot debate topic. It would be theoretically possible to clone man, but, to date, there are no records of an actual fully developed human ever being cloned. But there are still cases close to it. In 1997, the monkey scientists have succeeded in creating human clone embryos from the skin cell of both infants and full grown adults. And also in November 1998, the first hybrid human clone was created by using a nucleus taken from a man’s leg cell inserted into a cow’s egg. Apart from clone technology, artificial intelligence(AI) has also become a hot topic in recent years. In March 2016, AlphaGo, a computer program developed by Google to play the board game Go, beat Lee Sedol one of the best players at Go. It is the first time computer has beaten professional player without handicaps. And in May 2017, AlphaGo beat the world’s best Go player Ke Jie. From the above facts, we can see that there are unlimited possibilities of science and technology. If these technologies is abused, the plots in the movie probably happen in the futuristic world.

The Hunger Games is a YA dystopian science fiction film based on the novel of the same title by Suzanne Collins. The story takes place in a dystopian future in the nation of Panem. Every year the Capitol of Panem hosts an event called the Hunger Games where two "tributes" – a boy and a girl – are drafted from each of the twelve districts to be brought to an arena and fight to the death. Only one person can win. This is to remind the country not to rebel – and for entertainment, of course. Unfortunately, Katniss's little sister is selected for the Hunger Games, so Katniss volunteers to take her place. Also selected is Peeta Mellark. In this movie, the highly advanced science and technology brings extreme disasters to the people in Panem. In the arena of Hunger Games, the Gamemakers are allowed to take the use of high-tech arbitrarily to change the weather and continuously set some sinister traps to the “tributes” during the Games. The mouthwatering berries hanging in tress is actually deadly toxic, and the fire wall may fall down suddenly. Everything in the Games is unpredictable, which makes these “tributes” feel lost and unprepared. As it said in the novel, in order to make the games more exciting and gripping to cater the audiences, the Gamemakers emit poisonous smoke and gas and launch artificial fireball by means of high-tech.