Dystopia in Two 1950s American Science Fiction Novels

The BA thesis aims to analyse the treatment of dystopian features in two science fiction novels written in the 1950s. The two novels that are subject to analysis are Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. This thesis analyses different features of dystopia and how these features manifest themselves in the science fiction novels mentioned above. The thesis includes a theoretical part and an analytical part. The theoretical part focuses on the definition of science fiction and the historical development of the genre with particular emphasis on its picture in the 1950s as the two novels subject to analysis were published in this period. This part further takes a closer look at the relationship among utopia, dystopia and science fiction in the first half of the 20th century and the particular features that define dystopia. The first chapter of the analytical part opens with a definition of science fiction as a genre and its place within the literary canon. It discusses the term of cognitive estrangement introduced by Darko Suvin to define science fiction. The first chapter mainly focuses on the development of science fiction and its form throughout the magazine era in the 1940s and 1950s and the transformation from pulp magazines to a recognized..