Ideological State Apparatuses in Dystopian Novels

Abstract

Dystopian novels have been topping best-seller lists for nearly a hundred years, but not manypeople have examined why this is the case or what makes them so efective at warning readersabout what we could become in a not too distant future. Perhaps it is these texts’ connection to thereal world that plays into our fascination with the genre. This paper establishes this connectionby examining the worlds of three popular dystopian novels and the ways in which they supportLouis Althusser’s theory of Ideological State Apparatuses. This study will ideally enable readers torecognize the tools and real-life strategies that structure dystopian fctional worlds.