Agents of resistance & change: a visual rhetorical critique of dystopian media & authoritative political ideologies

Audiences have been turning to dystopian classics as evidence of dark times ahead for the United States, and guidance on how to respond to oppressive times. This thesis explores how political dystopian media can be a warning to what can happen in a world where policies and societies are established in a hegemonic and oppressive fashion. Through a visual rhetorical lens using Althusser’s Ideological and Repressive State Apparatus, Bentham’s Panopticon, and Gramsci’s work on Subaltern groups, themes of agency and government control serve as a guide to viewers in times of real life duress and political uncertainty. By the end of the analysis, readers can use the examples in this work as roadmaps to forming their own resistance in a time when dissent and opposition to the established order are threats to those in power.