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Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction - Hardcover

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Availability:In StockContributor:Matthew LeggattSeries:Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies #85Publish date:8/28/2025Pages:208
Language:EnglishPublisher:Liverpool University PressISBN-13:9781836244790ISBN-10:1836244797UPC:9781836244790Book Category:Literary CriticismBook Subcategory:American, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, ModernSize:9.21 x 6.14 x 0.50 inchesWeight:1.0318Product ID:SCHGR33YMT

Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction is a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary study of the different forms of play to be found in depictions of radically better and radically worse societies across literary, filmic, and televisual texts. The book sets out to dismantle common myths about the role of play in such fiction by arguing that, far from being dull and static, utopias are primarily playful and dynamic. In contrast, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, dystopian fiction has been popularized by reader and audience expectations of spectacular and exciting action, but in this book such readings of dystopia are also challenged. Accompanying this is a discussion about labor and its role in relation to a future society that might privilege play over work. The book covers texts as diverse as Thomas More's originary 1516 travel narrative, Utopia, and South Korean Netflix dystopian hit Squid Game (2021-25). It consists of chapters detailing the nature of play in utopian fiction; the connection between utopia and stasis; dystopian forms of violent and deadly play; boring dystopias; the absurd in utopian and dystopian fiction; and, finally, the future of play promised by new digital utopias and made possible by videogame technologies.

Language:EnglishPublisher:Liverpool University PressISBN-13:9781836244790ISBN-10:1836244797UPC:9781836244790Book Category:Literary CriticismBook Subcategory:American, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, ModernSize:9.21 x 6.14 x 0.50 inchesWeight:1.0318Product ID:SCHGR33YMT
Leggatt, Matthew: -

Matthew Leggatt is Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Winchester, UK. He is the author of two monographs, one edited collection, and numerous articles and book chapters. He is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Wastelands and Wonderlands: Essays on Utopian and Dystopian Film and Literature (SUNY Press, 2026) and co-hosts the Utopian and Dystopian Fictions podcast.

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Contributor(s)

Matthew Leggatt

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