Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and Anti-utopia
Utopia
The term first appeared in Thomas
Mores book Utopia (1516)
Ambiguity: eutopia= a good place
outopia= no place
The first utopia: Atlantis
SF and Utopia
SF can only be written between the
horizons of utopia and dystopia (Suvin)
Both deal with imagining progressive
alternatives for the current social conditions
and possible future outcomes of those
conditions
Every utopia is SF; important condition:
social progress in utopia must be achieved
by a technological or scientific discovery
Just, rational and egalitarian society
Utopia in literature
Utopia:
Eutopia: a society organized on a more
perfect principle than the authors
community
vs.
Dystopia (cacotopia): a society
organized on a less perfect principle
than the authors community
Dystopia:
Anti-utopia: a dystopia explicitly
designed to refute a currently
proposed eutopia (socialism closest
to utopia, anti-socialism= antiutopia)
Simple dystopia
(Suvin)
Anti-utopian atmosphere
After WWII disillusionment, refusal of utopian
ideal of society
Too perfect and ideal to be manageable in
reality- turns into its opposite dystopia
Ideal but static and boring
Tyranny of the perfect system over individual
Socialism and communism
In medias res- protagonist already lives in the
society, it is directly shown, not described
(1984, Brave New World)
Revival of utopia
1960s & 70s feminism, civil rights
movements, fight for equality
Critical utopia: suggesting a better,
but not an ideal world; aware of its
flaws, more realistic
(The Dispossessed, Triton)
Burgess-1985
Same principle as 1984
Anti-utopia and a satire
Criticism of both socialism (trade unions)
and capitalism (Islamic capital)
State in hands of workers; trade unions
Benefit of the society before the benefit of
an individual; equality no matter what;
language similar to Newspeak; vision of
consumer society; non-violent brain
washing
Similar to both 1984 and Brave New World
Taoist anarchism:
The order in a society must not be
imposed from without; it must come
from within;
Natural moral by which we distinguish
good from bad not predetermined
categories