Anti-utopia: Literature

Anti-Utopia

The first half of the sophomore curriculum focuses on the use and abuse of power. These links are a small section of the information available on these topics. Go back to the beach to search for more. Many of the links cross reference each other, so check all of the books. Authors include Orwell, Atwood, Huxley, DickensandKesey.

The course goals are available here, along with the review questions and the final. Civil Rights We begin with a unit on Power and Civil Rights in America. Our final project is the famous Viking project

Orwell's 1984

The handouts for the 1984 unit along with Notes
1984 with a Twist A wonderful page that does not include what you think it does. Great application of the novel.
Orwell's Revenge This is a pitch for a book that examines how the telescreen really came to be.
Freedom Watch This is a serious, heavy-duty civil rights page which guards against the encroachment of Big Brother.
Flatland The classic math novel about utopias.
The Prisoner A humorous, paranoid British TV show of the sixties and seventies that has some interesting parallels. Watch out for the big white things.
Dead Man Talking Letters from an inmate on Death Row.
Doublethink A wonderful page with dozens of modern examples of newspeak and doublethink.
Room 101 How it works....
Scientology This is an expose of the Church of Scientology and it's Orwellian tactics.
Amnesty International Torture and Pain in the world today.

Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale and some old, bad handouts

Cixous The narrative of this novel draws its ideas from the French theorist Helene Cixous. This is a chewy interview.
Review This is a college level review of the novel, with plentiful quotes.
Study Guide This is another teacher's take on the novel, with questions.
Atwood's Biography This is a thorough biography of the author.
Herland This is a novel by Charlotte Gilman that posits a utopia for women. Interesting stuff.

Huxley's Brave New World

Brave New World Brave New World Handouts
Schoolsux paper on BNW.
Huxley The wonderful world of Aldous Huxley.
Brave New World A review and connections to modern cyber punk. Plus, another book review.
Utopias and Dystopias an overview of many of these works, including a great cover of BNW.
LSD Soma of the Nineties. Read up.
Demolition Man Stallone's take on Brave New World. I'm serious.
Logan's RunAnother take on Brave New World.

Charles Dickens Hard Times and a Tale of Two Cities See the incomplete Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times handouts.

Why reinvent the wheel? Binghampton High School has a great site.
Ask Boz an interactive program that lets you ask the master questions.
Dickens at Bruno The Victorian Web does a heck of a job on the man and the era.
Hard Times on the web A great collection of academic links. Much of the important theory behind this novel comes from Thomas Carlyle and his work Hudson' s Statue"
One of Dicken's many homes.
Tale of Two Cities A slightly less successful collection of links.

Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Cuckoo's Nest 1 and Cuckoo's Nest Two. The lesson plans and the handouts
Ken Kesey Ken Kesey, the biography
Furthur The bus and the trip and the author. Very Wacky.
Far Gone with Kesey A deadhead interview with Kesey at his wackiest.
Medical problems in Cuckoo A medical analysis of the book. Really.
LSD Frequently Asked Questions Information on Kesey's drug of choice. See the Descent into Hell chapter.
Madness and Institutions What it is really like to be locked up.