Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

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.