UTOPIAN AND DYSTOPIAN
FICTION
The word utopia was used for the first time in
English literature by Sir Thomas More in the title of his work Utopia (1516).
The word indicates an ideal place which does not exist. In More's
book, Utopia is an island where there is not private property because that is
considered the origin of all the evils of the society. People live in a
community where all the goods are shared, there is a free education and free
medical treatment, all religions are tolerated and
have time for relaxation and entertainment. The next utopian work was The New
Atlantis, by Francis Bacon in 1626. It describes a completely isolated society
which has full control of nature and where there are inventions suggesting the
future development of airles, submarines and
telephones among other fantastic improvements. In the 18th century,
the most famous utopian writer was Swift with his Gulliver's Travels, which was
a masterpiece of semi-utopian narrative. The use of the term 'semi-utopian'
derives from the fact that of the four types of society described in the book
only one can be considered a truly utopian land because the other three show
negative aspects. In the 19th century, Erewhon
was published by Butler the title is an anagram of 'nowhere'. It tells the story
of a young traveller who discovered the land of Erewhon.
The 20th century saw a great production of literary utopias. Most of
them were technological utopias. Most of these works were also called science
fiction novels. The best example is The Time Machine by Wells. It treats the
theme of confrontation with the alien, of the last man on the earth and the
death of the world. The most important of Wells' utopian novel is A Modern
Utopia. But science and technology became a threat to man. This fear of this
threat produced the converse of utopia fiction, that
is anti-utopian or dystopian works. In them placed,
which do not exist, are described, but they are not ideal,
on the contrary they are nightmarish and frightening. They are usually set in
the future and the represent warnings to men. Brave New World by Huxley is set
six hundred years into the future and is about the danger of scientific
achievements and dictatorship. Another dystopian work
which deals with the problem of destruction of liberty and individuality is
Animal Farm by George Orwell. It was followed by 1984, in which the author
attempts to describe the future. He present life under
a dictator, Big Brother. The despot is never seen and there is no certainty he
really exists, people are controlled by telescreens
which are located everywhere, even in private houses. In the years that
followed many writers were influenced by dystopian
novels and in their works they created societies which expressed their horror
of the present and their fear for the future of mankind. One of them was Golding, who, in his Lord of the Flies, makes a group of
children create a world which imitates the one of adults.
