Dystopian Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Analysis of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Many emblematic books of the twentieth century fall into the category of dystopian writing or fiction. But what exactly is dystopian fiction? What are the typical characteristics of this genre, if there are any? What makes these books unique? What is the aim of dystopian writing? What can we learn from these stories?This book is trying to answer these questions, mainly through the comparative analysis of Aldous Huxley's Brave New Word and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.After a brief, yet relevant first part about the development and common characteristics of dystopias, the book focuses on revealing these recurrent themes in the two novels. Besides, the analysis will show how books that follow a certain tradition can still be unique and very different from each other.Finally, there is a chapter dedicated to the possible pedagogical implications of such texts in an EFL classroom.This book brings together all the knowledge that is required to approach, analyse, and employ dystopian literature.

Dóra Kollár, BA/BEd: Studied English Language teaching and Literature with Media Studies at Kodolányi János University College, Hungary, 2002-2006. Studying English at the University of Stirling, Scotland, 2007-2009.