iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Utopian Novel

The utopian genre and its child-genre, the dystopia, are uses of literature to explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, where utopian ideals have been subverted. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction writing.

Utopian fiction

The word utopia was first used in this context by Thomas More in his 1516 work Utopia, which literally means both "no place" and "best place" in Greek. In this work, More sets out a vision of an ideal society. An earlier example of a Utopian-like work from classical times is Plato's The Republic, in which he outlines what he sees as the ideal society and its political system.

Other examples include Aldous Huxley's Island, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and B.F. Skinner's Walden Two. Gulliver's Travels may also be seen as a satirical utopia because it is actually a comment on the society the author lived in. The same goes for Erewhon by Samuel Butler - where "Erehwon" is "nowhere" spelled in reverse.

Examples:

Dystopian fiction

Dystopias usually include elements of contemporary society and function as a warning against some modern trend. Often, the warning is against the threat of oppressive regimes in one form or another.

For examples of dystopias, see: Also, for extended listings, see:

Combinations

Many works combine elements of both utopias and dystopias. Typically, an observer from our world will journey to another place or time and see one society the author considers ideal, and another representing the worst possible outcome. The point is usually that the choices we make now may lead to a better or worse potential future world. Ursula K. Leguin's Always Coming Home fulfils this model, as does Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. In Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing there is no time-travelling observer, but her ideal society is invaded by a neighbouring power embodying evil repression. In Aldous Huxley's Island, in many ways a counterpoint to his better-known Brave New World, the fusion of the best parts of Buddhist philosophy and Western technology is threatened by the "invasion" of oil companies.

In another literary model, the imagined society journeys between elements of utopia and dystopia over the course of the novel or film. At the beginning of The Giver by Lois Lowry, the world is described as a utopia, but as the book progresses, dystopia takes over.

Subgenres

A subgenre of this is ecotopian fiction, where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia was the first example of this, followed by Kim Stanley Robinson in his California trilogy. Robinson has also edited an anthology of short ecotopian fiction, called . Michael Crichton has produced a notable work called State of Fear, where he painstakingly footnotes the scientific assertions made by characters on both sides, then provides helpful appendices.

Anthony Burgess wrote in Part One of his novel 1985 about Nineteen Eighty-Four, stating that 'I prefer to call Orwell’s imaginary society a cacotopia - on the lines of cacophony or cacodaemon. It sounds worse than dystopia'

Another important subgenre is feminist utopias, for example Marge Piercy's novel Woman on the Edge of Time. See also the overlapping category of feminist science fiction. Writer Sally Gearhart calls feminist utopian fiction political, saying it: contrasts the present world with an idealized society, criticizes contemporary values and conditions, sees men or masculine systems as the major cause of social and political problems (e.g. war), and presents women as equal to or superior to men, having ownership over their reproductive functions. A common solution to gender oppression or social ills in feminist utopian fiction is to remove men, either showing isolated female societies as in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, or societies where men have died out or been replaced, as in Joanna Russ's A Few Things I Know About Whileaway, where "the poisonous binary gender" has died off. Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is an example of a feminist utopian novel that does not remove men, but posits a non-human biology in which each individual is usually neuter, and sometimes male, sometimes female.

Cultural impact

Étienne Cabet's work Voyages en Icarie caused a group of Cabet's followers, known as Icarians, to leave France in 1848 and come to the United States to found a series of utopian settlements in Texas, Illinois, Iowa, California, and elsewhere. These groups lived in communal settings and lasted until 1898.

See also

Utopia (from Greek: οὐ no, and τόπος, place, i.e. "no place" or "place that does not exist," as well as "perfect place") is a fictional island near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean written about by Sir Thomas More as the
..... Click the link for more information.
The current usage of the term nightmare refers to a dream which causes the sleeper a strong unpleasant emotional response. Nightmares typically feature fear or horror, and/or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death.
..... Click the link for more information.
Utopia (from Greek: οὐ no, and τόπος, place, i.e. "no place" or "place that does not exist," as well as "perfect place") is a fictional island near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean written about by Sir Thomas More as the
..... Click the link for more information.
dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia,[1] kakotopia or anti-utopia) is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi
..... Click the link for more information.
Saint Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), also known as Sir Thomas More, was an English lawyer, author, and statesman. During his lifetime he earned a reputation as a leading humanist scholar and occupied many public offices, including that of Lord Chancellor
..... Click the link for more information.
15th century - 16th century - 17th century
1480s  1490s  1500s  - 1510s -  1520s  1530s  1540s
1513 1514 1515 - 1516 - 1517 1518 1519

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
De Optimo Reipublicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia (translated On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia) or more simply Utopia is a 1516 book by Sir (Saint) Thomas More.
..... Click the link for more information.
PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία) is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written approximately 360 BC. It is an influential work of philosophy and political theory, and perhaps Plato's best known work.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aldous Huxley
Born: July 26 1894(1894--)
Surrey, England
Died: November 22 1963 (aged 69)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation: Writer; author
Influences: Swami Prabhavananda, J. Krishnamurti, F.
..... Click the link for more information.
Island (ISBN 0-06-008549-5) is a novel by Aldous Huxley that was first published in 1962. It is the account of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who is shipwrecked on the fictional island of Pala.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella
..... Click the link for more information.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships
..... Click the link for more information.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990), Ph.D. was a highly influential American psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform [1][2][3][4] and poet.
..... Click the link for more information.
Walden Two (1948) is a novel by B.F. Skinner which described a fictional utopia in which a thousand people have obtained a good life modeled after Thoreau's experiment in living near Walden pond. In it B.F.
..... Click the link for more information.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships
..... Click the link for more information.
Erewhon
Author Samuel Butler
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Publisher
Publication date 1872 Erewhon, or Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler, published anonymously in 1872.
..... Click the link for more information.
Samuel Butler

Born: November 4 1835(1835--)
Langar Rectory, England (near Bingham, Nottinghamshire)
Died: May 18 1902 (aged 68)

Occupation: Novelist, Writer
Nationality: English


..... Click the link for more information.
Saint Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), also known as Sir Thomas More, was an English lawyer, author, and statesman. During his lifetime he earned a reputation as a leading humanist scholar and occupied many public offices, including that of Lord Chancellor
..... Click the link for more information.
Utopia (from Greek: οὐ no, and τόπος, place, i.e. "no place" or "place that does not exist," as well as "perfect place") is a fictional island near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean written about by Sir Thomas More as the
..... Click the link for more information.
Aldous Huxley
Born: July 26 1894(1894--)
Surrey, England
Died: November 22 1963 (aged 69)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation: Writer; author
Influences: Swami Prabhavananda, J. Krishnamurti, F.
..... Click the link for more information.
Island (ISBN 0-06-008549-5) is a novel by Aldous Huxley that was first published in 1962. It is the account of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who is shipwrecked on the fictional island of Pala.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella
..... Click the link for more information.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships
..... Click the link for more information.
William Morris (March 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896) was an English artist, writer, socialist and activist. He was one of the principal founders of the British arts and crafts movement, best known as a designer of wallpaper and patterned fabrics, a writer of poetry and fiction
..... Click the link for more information.
News from Nowhere (or An Epoch of Rest)
Author William Morris
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher NA
Publication date 1890
Media type Print (Hardback, Paperback)
Pages 185
..... Click the link for more information.
Edward Bellamy (March 26 1850 – May 22 1898) was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000.

Early life

Edward Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.
..... Click the link for more information.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990), Ph.D. was a highly influential American psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform [1][2][3][4] and poet.
..... Click the link for more information.
Walden Two (1948) is a novel by B.F. Skinner which described a fictional utopia in which a thousand people have obtained a good life modeled after Thoreau's experiment in living near Walden pond. In it B.F.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter