What kind of world do we want to live in, and what happens when our dreams turn into nightmares? Literature across Utopia, Dystopia and Heterotopia takes readers on a journey through imagined societies, unsettling futures, and extraordinary spaces beyond everyday life. Bringing together perspectives from different periods and cultures, this volume explores hope, fear, power, freedom, and the search for better ways of living together. Each chapter reveals how fictional worlds speak directly to the challenges of our own time. Engaging, thought-provoking, and timely, this collection invites readers to see literature and the world around them with fresh and imaginative eyes.
Table of Contents
Preface …………………………………………………………………………………………………… v
1. Betwixt and Between: The Heterotopian Impulse in Robert William Cole’s The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236
Emanuela Ettorre & Adrian Tait …………………………………………………………………….. 11
2. Producing Utopia and Dystopia: Posthuman Embodiment and Heterotopic Theatre in Blue Daisy in the Swamp
Yuko Nobe …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33
3. Reimagining Philanthropic Websites as Heterotopic Spaces: Digital Narratives of Crises, Deviation and Vulnerability among Children
Fredrica Markson Eduaful ……………………………………………………………………………… 55
4. Parodic Reformulations of Myth: Utopia, Dystopia, and Heterotopic World-Making in Kaos (2024)
Sana’ BenAli-Taga ………………………………………………………………………………………… 79
5. The Cultural Space of Possibilities? Reconciliation and Compromise in Another World (2025) and Eternity (2025)
Amy Lee ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 109
6. „Halb Wasser, halb Wind”, „[e]in Vogel […], ein Fisch”: Mythologische (Denk-)Figuren des Heterotopischen in Sarah Kuratles Chimäre
Ursula Klingenböck ……………………………………………………………………………………… 123
7. Women Who Break and Mend Worlds: Narrative Strategies of Female Agency in Nnedi Okorafor’s Africanfuturist Universes
James Orao ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 141
8. A Very British Dystopia: Life after Big Brother in Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (2007)
Charlie Harris …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 167
9. Hoffmann; or, the (Post-)Modern Prometheus: AI, Financial Speculation, and their Utopian-Dystopian Projection in Robert Harris’s The Fear Index
Karsten Klein ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 197
10. Utopia Above, Dystopia Below: Heterotopic Spaces of Control in Karen Duve’s Macht
Anna Kuhn …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 223
11. The Utopian Voice the Ideological Cannot Contain: How the Power of Feminine Song Subverts Capitol Power in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Morgan Rich ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 247
12. Dystopien der Gegenwart: Literarische und filmische Technikkritik am Beispiel von Hans Joachim. Gernerts Knotenpunk – Angriff auf das Netz und Maria Schraders Ich bin dein Mensch
Jude Daniel Tolo …………………………………………………………………………………………. 277
13. Biopolitical Genealogies of UKI: From Totalitarian Colonialism to Viral Liberation
Albert Kang-Chia Peng …………………………………………………………………………………. 299
14. Virtual Escapism: Ready Player One Uses Virtual Reality to Discuss the Role of Agency in a Dystopian Society
Madeline Lee …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 323
