# The Fiction of Dread: Dystopia, Monstrosity, and Apocalypse - Hardcover

by **Robert T. Tally Jr** (Author)

**A history and examination of dystopia and angst in popular culture that speaks to our current climate of dread.**

At the dawn of the 20th century, a wide-ranging utopianism dominated popular and intellectual cultures throughout Europe and America. However, in the aftermathof the World Wars, with such canonical examples as _Brave New World_ and _Nineteen-__Eighty-Four_, dystopia emerged as a dominant genre, in literature and in social thought. The continuing presence and eventual dominance of dystopian themes in popular culture-e.g., dismal authoritarian future states, sinister global conspiracies, post-apocalyptic landscapes, a proliferation of horrific monsters, and end-of-the-world fantasies-have confirmed the degree to which the 21st is also a dystopian century.

Drawing on literature as varied as H.G. Wells's _The Time Machine_, Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_, and Suzanne Collins's _The Hunger Games_, and on TV and film such as _The Walking Dead, Black Mirror_, and _The Last of Us_, Robert T. Tally Jr. explores the landscape of angst created by the monstrous accumulation of dystopian material. _The Fiction of Dread_ provides an innovative reading of contemporary culture and offers an alternative vision for critical theory and practice at a moment when, as has been famously observed, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

### Author Biography

**Robert T. Tally Jr.** is Professor of English at Texas State University. His recent books include _The Critical Situation: Vexed Perspectives in Postmodern Literary Studies_ (2023); _For a Ruthless Critique of All That Exists_ (2022); _J.R.R. Tolkien's_ The Hobbit_: Realizing History Through Fantasy_ (2022); _Topophrenia: Place, Narrative, and the Spatial Imagination_ (2019); _Fredric Jameson: The Project of Dialectic Criticism_ (2014); _Poe and the Subversion of American Literature_ (2014); _Spatiality_ (2013); _Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel_ (2011); and _Melville, Mapping, and Globalization_ (2009). Tally is also the editor of the _Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies_ book series.

**Number of Pages:** 184

**Dimensions:** 0.44 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN

**Publication Date:** January 11, 2024

## Details

- **Price:** 171.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 171.00 USD | In stock |

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- The Fiction of Dread: Dystopia, Monstrosity, and Apocalypse - Hardcover

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