Cirrus@Austlit

'Dystopian texts represent worlds that are both strange and strangely familiar. This seeming paradox is just one of the ways these works functions as useful and engaging narratives for exploring English concepts in secondary classrooms. Accompanied and guided by their teachers, students can not only engage with the fiction, but also imagine what the world could really be like and how they might change the way it actually is.

'Reading and studying dystopian works offers a vehicle for navigating and negotiating a sometimes disturbing and often disconcerting world - of find power and personal agency in situations of powerlessness, in finding warmth, human connection and self-sacrifice in a world that can seem callous, selfish and devoid of humanity, of finding light beyond the dark.

'This publication is intended as a guide for English teachers as they develop learning sequences for their students that ask them to investigate worlds both imaginary and real. Using contemporary Australian, along with some classic dystopian fiction, it shares insights and provides practical strategies for teaching a broad range of dystopian texts in contemporary classrooms.'

Source: Back cover.