“Hope isn’t stupid”: The Appropriation of Dystopia

Raffaella Baccolini, Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna, Forlì Campus

raffaella.baccolini(at)unibo.it

Abstract: The realization that utopia had been commodified and domesticated has led some critics to work primarily on dystopia and argue that the utopian impulse can be maintained in dystopias. However, we are witnessing today an appropriation and a commodification of dystopia as well. This paper explores this appropriation (in fiction, in social media, and in fashion) and claims that the recognition of the precarity of hope is what may still help us today to renovate the discourse on utopia.