Hannah Winne - Blog Post 8

1.     Inquiry Question: What does the lack of protection for children in dystopia say about the value children hold in society?

2.     Sambell, Kay. “Carnivalizing the Future: A New Approach to Theorizing Childhood and Adulthood in Science Fiction for Young Readers”. The Lion and the Unicorn: Vol. 28, No. 2. John Hopkins University Press. 2004. Article.

3.     Sambell tackles theories of how adulthood and childhood are constructed in relation to each other in dystopian fiction. She explains how dystopias often call the ethical validity or corruption of adults into question in order to identify ideas of childhood innocence. She also notes how children provide a voice of morality and hope in many dystopian works, but also are often depicted as “helpless victims.” She draws upon other authors’ ideas of the “death of childhood” in order for children to survive in dangerous settings created by dystopian fiction, as the adults who originally set out to help them either end up somehow letting them down. A major example Sambell uses throughout her article is Phillip Reeve’s novel Mortal Engines, in which both his narrative and his writing style reflect a flip in concepts of maturity as it’s socially assigned to children and adults.

4.     This article relates to my inquiry question by identifying how children are written in dystopia and how that is reflective of the ways childlike qualities are perceived and values in society.