On Dystopia, Fearing the Future and Political Imagination

This week, the Anti-Dystopians talks to an expert in dystopia! Matthew Cole is a scholar of political theory and an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences Binghamton University. His book “Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the 20th century” explores the history of dystopian thinking and why so many dystopian books have captured our political imagination (or indeed, accurately predicted our political future). We discuss the history of utopianism and dystopianism, whyy the emerged so prominently in the 20th century, and how dystopian literature and slogans (from “Make Atwood Fiction Again” to “1984 Was Not an Instruction Manual”) have come to characterize today’s political resistance movements. 

For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.

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Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-land

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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