A study on secondary school students' perspective on dystopian literary works appealing to children

Dystopian works are literary forms that forewarn the reader by displaying bad scenarios about the future of the world, infernal fictions, and global disasters with dramatic consequences and empower them to approach the current conditions from a critical perspective. The ethical agenda of such works encompasses topics such as technological developments, epidemics, environmental pollution, controlling and oppressive governments, artificial intelligence, and climate crisis. Dystopian narratives, which introduces the reader with a discourse on how today's circumstances will shape the future, in addition to possible individual, social, psychological, economic, biological, moral and political issues that may arise in the future, can play a functional role in the multidimensional development of the child. It serves the child reader to sense the problems that humanity will face or the price that the individual will pay at the micro-level and the human species at the macro-level. The aim of this study is to reveal the viewpoint of secondary school students regarding dystopian works written for children. The study was structured in a qualitative research design and data collection tools were used, such as interview method, student diaries, and content analysis to analyze the data. The study group of the research consists of thirteen (13) students attending secondary school. As a result of the study, participants mostly drew attention to the problems of rights and law, nature and climate, and the digital age. As a result of the study the following outcomes ensued; secondary school students perceived the universe in dystopian works mainly as fictional worlds, technological and futuristic; They focus on the social, personality, physical and emotional qualities of the characters in dystopian works; It has been observed that the dystopian universe arouses positive, negative and neutral emotions in the participants. Moreover, participants evaluated the fictional flow mainly with focus on a happy ending , across different expectation categories. It is duly noted that the participants are observed recommending the works to all individuals they engage with, including friends and managers, for the reasons of creating sensitivity/awareness and the interest of the work. Consequently, it can be asserted that dystopian works develop a sensitivity towards local or global issues and have potential to propose innovative and original solution suggestions.