Description: In contrast to classic dystopia's manifestations of world-shattering and -changing events, Microdystopias: Aesthetics and Ideologies in a Broken Moment introduces and develops the idea of microdystopia as the emerging genre for our times of imperceptibly shrinking horizons of ...
Brief description: Asbjørn Skarsvåg Grønstad is Professor in the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Review Quotes:
"Microdystopias, as defined by the editors, are the "emerging genre of our times" and consist of the small and incremental "everyday encroachments on our horizons" brought about by the polarization of politics and class, the climate crisis, "cybernetic totalism," neoliberalism, the pandemic, capitalism, and other societal ills (p. 4). The ten chapters by scholars of various disciplines from two Norwegian universities explore and develop the concept of microdystopias through the lens of popular culture. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty." --Choice Reviews
""Have we become exhausted by mass culture's indulgence in exorbitant spectacles of apocalyptic destruction and civilizational collapse, and turned instead to more modest and nuanced portrayals of the on-going "microdystopias" of everyday life? This scintillating collection of essays by a team of astute Norwegian cultural critics makes a strong case for the transition from fearing the world will end with a bang to experiencing it as an endless series of desperate whimpers."" --Martin Jay, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley, author of The Dialectical Imagination