The word dystopia originates from greek dys- which means bad, abnormal and
difficult, and -utopia which means something like any perfect place. The word is the opposite of utopia, that is, the presentation of a repressive world controlled by an all powerful and coercive state that claims to perform a utopian function.

The term is especially relevant as a literary genre exemplified by novels like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984, by George Orwell, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Phillip K. Dick. More recently the genre has been reawakened by the success of dystopian novels such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale or The Running Man by Stephen King.