Imagining Dystopian Futures in Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

This chapter discusses how it is notable that ‘speculative fiction’ – fiction that creates alternative worlds – frequently addresses themes of deviance, transgression and ordering. It identifies themes of surveillance and spectacle; hyperreality and virtual reality; memory and the suppression of history; and hierarchy and difference in dystopian fiction aimed at young adults – The Hunger Games (Collins, 2008), The Maze Runner (Dashner, 2009), Divergent (Roth, 2011) and Red Rising (Brown, 2014). The chapter explores the role of this fiction in cultural imaginings of social control, repression and resistance, and argues for greater criminological attention to novels, including bestselling fiction.