M.A. Theses
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Browsing M.A. Theses by Subject "Dystopias in literature."
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Item Breaking the closure through language: the representation of oppression and resistance in Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale and Ursula K. Le Guin's the telling(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Kayışcı, Burcu.; Gülçur, A. Lamia.This study aims to demonstrate how oppression and resistance are represented on the plane of language in the two examples of critical dystopias. The works that are chosen for detailed analysis are The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin. The study begins with a short survey of the most significant literary utopias and dystopias while simultaneously presenting the definitions and explaining the differences. In this respect, the transformation of the utopian and the dystopian genre through time is also delineated with the help of the comments of various utopian and dystopian critics. Then, the two novels are analyzed to illustrate the qualities that render them the examples of critical dystopias. The discourse of the hegemonic order is juxtaposed with the stories of the main characters which they tell in order to resist the closure of the regime. In the course of the analysis, Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “authoritative word” and Julia Kristeva’s “poetic logic” are employed to support the ideas presented. The manipulation of history and memory as well as the possibilities that the novels provide in terms of active political resistance is also included in accordance with the concerns of the critical dystopias.Item How the world changes dystopias :|an ecocritical study of evolving climate fiction novels(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Erer, Eda Begüm.; Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu, Özlem.There is a deep lack of attention to the discussions of climate change, both in general and in literature. The scientific data suggests that we are at a point of no return when with global warming and we will face great climate disasters in the near future. The Drowned World(1962) written by J. G. Ballard and New York 2140 (2017) written by Kim Stanley Robinson, as novels depicting similar drowned futures, use future narratives to criticize current Anthropocentric stances on climate change, and portray dystopic futures as warnings for the present reader. Reading the novels’ fluid connection to time and place through the lens of science fiction as a genre that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, this work seeks to trace the entanglements future climate narratives offer as alternatives to current dynamics of capitalism and ecological disaster. Both novels use the motif of the water as an actor that freely flows between boundaries and the different scales of time and disaster depictions show the ineffectiveness of Cartesian binaries against a fast changing climate. Science fiction elements blur the well-established time and space constraints of the Western narrative while questioning the human time and place on Earth. The use of posthuman ecocritical theories offer an alternative to present dichotomies between nature and culture. Science fiction works help to shape different ideologies that do not alienate the human from the the nature, which in turn may help the longevity and quality of human life on the planet.