Archiving the Resistance: Memory and Oppositional Recordkeeping in Dystopian Fiction

Abstract

As imaginary good places located elsewhere and/or in another time, literary utopias may articulate nostalgic yearnings for an irretrievable past, but more significantly, they express socio-political discontent with the present and anticipations for the future. The role of memory is thus central in utopian configurations since they present better alternatives primarily by “remembering” and evaluating specific historical conjunctures. In line with the increasing prominence of dystopian fiction starting from the early twentieth century, issues concerning the preservation and destruction of memory have become more relevant. Authors portray how totalitarian regimes and corporations reshape or sever the links between the past, the present, and the future while defiant characters resist political oppression by forming alternative narratives. The struggle to construct personal and collective archives against the obliteration of past and present records makes recordkeeping a common theme and trope in many dystopian narratives. This paper examines the various forms of what I call “oppositional recordkeeping” in the selected major examples of the genre through theories of dystopia, memory, and the archive. The paper will conclude that authors of dystopian fiction preserve the possibility of utopian change by imagining various oppositional recordkeeping practices without overlooking the problems entailed in authority and authorship.