Fictitious Countries in Media

In this book, Melissa Beattie addresses the problems and potentials of ‘fictitious countries’, focusing upon how and why they are constructed and who and how they represent.

Countries constructed for fictional media are often made up of parts of different countries that exist in geopolitical reality. Through the use of case studies of fictitious countries drawn from four different regions – Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and post-Soviet states – Beattie argues that fictitious countries express discourses that are already extant about these regions and, in so doing, often prioritize characters from existing countries and geopolitically or socioculturally dominant groups. By drawing upon aesthetics and industrial analyses, this book explores how geopolitical and sociocultural power imbalances are replicated in these constructions.

Ultimately, Beattie encourages critique and reflection by media theorists, practitioners, students and audiences with regard to the construction and representation of the fictitious countries in order to better understand and represent the societies and (sub)cultures in which these texts are produced and received.