Dark Days Ahead

Unlike utopian novels and films that depict desirable and pleasing worlds of the future, "dystopian" literary and cinematic works present us with troubling images of a future that in many ways may already be here. Dark Days Ahead examines some of these images and the problems they pose. We will read and view a number of dystopian novels and films, discussing their form and content and analyzing what they have to say about the future and the world we live in now. Novels include The Time Machine (H.G. Wells), The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell). Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick) and Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam) are the films.