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UNIT I. DYSTOPIA
FINAL TASK
FINAL TASK
As young promising authors, your publisher contacted you so that you could send them the front and back covers of your next masterpiece.
The only way to succeed in impressing your publisher will be to organise your ideas, write enough lines and provide a detailed and elegant result.
This task will be carried out alone and will be done in class, on computers (~250 words)
LESSON 1. UTOPIA & DYSTOPIA
LESSON 1. UTOPIA & DYSTOPIA
THE HUNGER GAMES
The Hunger Games is a series of Dystopian novels written by Suzanne Collins (American author) and adapted into films.
It features a protagonist called Katniss Everdeen, a resident of Panem, a North American country made up of a wealthy Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two children from each districts are selected via lottery to participate in a battle royale death match called the Hunger Games.
In this series of novels it is possible to notice elements from Dystopia & Utopia all at once.
Have a look at the following pictures and guess whether they are part of a dystopian or utopian narrative.
On the left is a visual representation of dystopia whereas on the right is a visual representation of utopia.
How to make hypotheses:
It looks like a giant transportation system
It might be a parallel universe
They could be fighting
Maybe it’s the future
We should call in case they need us.
Imagine you won the lottery, what would you do?
What if he were not dead?
Suppose you hadn’t passed, what would you be today?
Let’s Make hypotheses about what could define a dystopian & utopian world
Let’s Make hypotheses about what could define a dystopian & utopian world
Official definitions:
According to the Oxford Dictionaries, dystopia is: ‘an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.’
Utopia, on the other hand, is defined as follows: ‘a perfect society in which people work well with each other and are happy’
Some examples from Music
Some examples from Music
'London Calling' by The Clash
'Idioteque' by Radiohead
'Mercy' by Muse
'GIMME SHELTER' - The Rolling Stones
LESSON 2. THE DYSTOPIAN RECIPE
LESSON 2. THE DYSTOPIAN RECIPE
WHO is used for people or pet animals. (QUI)
He’s the man who borrowed my pen!
WHOM is used for people when it’s translated into ‘QUE’ when it is alone or into ‘A qui/Pour qui’ when there is a preposition.
Drama in schools is particularly good for pupils for whom English is not easy.
He reminds me of someone whom I used to know
There was only one person to whom the old man spoke.
WHICH is used for objects and animals. (QUE/QUI)
This is the house which I bought.
WHOSE is a bit more complex. It is translated into ‘dont’ or ‘A qui/de qui’
She’s the woman whose dog ran away yesterday.
This man was an actor whose father was a director.
She’s marrying a man whose family don’t seem to like her.
LESSON 3. CONTROL
LESSON 3. CONTROL
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EXTRACT FROM 1984
In the document, a dictionary is mentioned, explain for which language it is used
What is so special about that dictionary when compared to other dictionaries?
Who are the two characters and what is their relationship like?
What would be the ultimate goal of the dictionary? What is it actually used for?
'How is the Dictionary getting on?' said Winston, raising his voice to overcome the noise.
'Slowly,' said Syme. 'I'm on the adjectives. It's fascinating.'
He had brightened up immediately at the mention of Newspeak. He pushed his pannikin aside, took up his hunk of bread in one delicate hand and his cheese in the other, and leaned across the table so as to be able to speak without shouting.
'The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,' he said. 'We're getting the language into its final shape -- the shape it's going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we've finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words -- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.'
He bit hungrily into his bread and swallowed a couple of mouthfuls, then continued speaking, with a sort of pedant's passion. His thin dark face had become animated, his eyes had lost their mocking expression and grown almost dreamy.
'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take "good", for instance. If you have a word like "good", what need is there for a word like "bad"? "Ungood" will do just as well -- better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid" and all the rest of them? "Plusgood" covers the meaning, or "doubleplusgood" if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already. but in the final version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words -- in reality, only one word. Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.'s idea originally, of course,' he added as an afterthought.
A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the mention of Big Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm.
'You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,' he said almost sadly. 'Even when you write it you're still thinking in Oldspeak. I've read some of those pieces that you write in The Times occasionally. They're good enough, but they're translations. In your heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?'
Winston did know that, of course. He smiled, sympathetically he hoped, not trusting himself to speak. Syme bit off another fragment of the dark-coloured bread, chewed it briefly, and went on:
'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,' he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. 'Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?’
G. Orwell, 1984, Chapter 5, Part I
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