Microdystopias

Asbjørn Grønstad is professor of visual culture in the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen.Lene M. Johannessen is professor of American literature in the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceHenrik GustafssonChapter 1: MicrodystopiasAsbjørn Grønstad and Lene JohannessenChapter 2: Toward a Diagnostics of the Present: Popular Culture, Post-Apocalyptic Macro-Dystopia, and the Petrification of PoliticsHolger PötzschChapter 3: The Electronic Superhighway Collapses: The Silences of Don DeLillo’s The SilenceØyvind VågnesChapter 4: Microdystopias and the Encoded Uncanny in Ira Levin and Rick and MortyMichael J. PrinceChapter 5: Unfeeling the Future: Euphoria, Teen Angst and the Micro-dystopicAnders LysneChapter 6: ‘Heavenly Days’ and Everyday Dystopia in SuperstoreLene JohannessenChapter 7: Nomadland, Neoliberalism and the MicrodystopicAsbjørn GrønstadChapter 8: Micro-dystopia and the Question of WildernessKnut RioChapter 9: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation? Unpacking the microtopias of Beyonce’s Black is KingNahum WelangChapter 10: ‘It’s our secret, right?’: An Investigation of Homelessness in HBO’s M

Microdystopias, as defined by the editors, are the “emerging genre of our times” and consist of the small and incremental “everyday encroachments on our horizons” brought about by the polarization of politics and class, the climate crisis, "cybernetic totalism," neoliberalism, the pandemic, capitalism, and other societal ills (p. 4). The ten chapters by scholars of various disciplines from two Norwegian universities explore and develop the concept of microdystopias through the lens of popular culture. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty.