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Dystopia

About: Dystopia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2146 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15163 citations. The topic is also known as: cacotopia.


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Book
10 May 2010
TL;DR: The relationship between historical sex-gender systems and those envisioned by utopian texts has been examined in this article, where the authors reveal the variety and complexity of approaches to re-arranging gender, and locates these'rearrangements' within contemporary debates on sex and reproduction, masculinity and femininity, desire, taboo and family structure.
Abstract: From Thomas More onwards, writers of utopias have constructed alternative models of society as a way of commenting critically on existing social orders. In the utopian alternative, the sex-gender system of the contemporary society may be either reproduced or radically re-organised. Reading utopian writing as a dialogue between reality and possibility, this study examines the relationship between historical sex-gender systems and those envisioned by utopian texts. Surveying a broad range of utopian writing from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Huxley, Zamyatin, Wedekind, Hauptmann, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this book reveals the variety and complexity of approaches to re-arranging gender, and locates these 're-arrangements' within contemporary debates on sex and reproduction, masculinity and femininity, desire, taboo and family structure. These issues occupy a position of central importance in the dialogue between utopian imagination and anti-utopian thought which culminates in the great dystopias of the twentieth century and the postmodern re-invention of utopia.

8 citations

01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: Using postmodern, feminist and queer notions of utopia/dystopia and narrative theory, the authors presented an analysis of The Handmaid's Tale (novel 1985; film 1990; TV series S01 2017) based on th...
Abstract: Using postmodern, feminist and queer notions of utopia/dystopia and narrative theory, this thesis contains an analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale (novel 1985; film 1990; TV series S01 2017) based on th ...

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The meta-utopia is the architextual form based on the utopian canon, a kind of parody and rethinking of the utopia as mentioned in this paper, where the authors of the novels by A. Volodine appear as the combination of elements of historical, political, science fiction discourses, aimed to represent the irreal world as the possible one.
Abstract: Poetical dominants of the novels by A. Volodine appear as the combination of elements of historical, political, science fiction discourses, aimed to represent the irreal world as the possible one. Within the aesthetic space of postmodernism, A. Volodine develops the reflection on the problem of relations in the triad of human/society/civilization in a fictional form. This original genre form combines various utopian modus elements: dystopian one in the denial of the utopian project and showing the individual`s impersonality and social decline in the conditions of utopia ("Minor Angels"), dystopian one – in the negative reality representations similar to the modernist detachment and «black novels» ("Dondog"), counter-utopian one – in the ironic interpretation of the 20th century utopia/dystopia tradition in terms of postmodernist mindset ("Bardo or not Bardo"). Such modifications resulted in the attribution of A. Volodine`s postmodernist novels as meta-utopia that is the architextual form based on the utopian canon, a kind of parody and rethinking of the utopia.

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Herlanders' mastery of their environment and population is impressive on one level, on another it is disconcerting and the novel, from our point of view, can be said to have a place in another tradition of technological dystopia.
Abstract: This article considers Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel Herland in the larger utopian tradition and argues that it can be classified as a scientific utopia, in the tradition of Bacon's New Atlantis . Herland is frequently mischaracterized as "Arcadian" and "pastoral." In reality, the novel presents an advanced industrialized society that uses radical environmental engineering. The article challenges a number of critical readings from ecofeminism and feminist science studies in characterizing the novel, which has been abundantly studied in terms of gender politics but far less so in terms of the scientific utopia. Also covered are the novel's engagements with the population principle and eugenics—controversial issues in the novel's time and in our own but familiar territory in the utopian tradition. Though the Herlanders' mastery of their environment and population is impressive on one level, on another it is disconcerting, and the novel, from our point of view, can be said to have a place in another tradition—the technological dystopia. Last, brief consideration is given to the question of whether science can be a legitimate basis of utopia and what Herland contributes to this ongoing debate.

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
04 Aug 2021-Coolabah
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a series of imaginary "utopian" islands of the Early Modern period, including Utopia, New Atlantis, The Isle of Pines and the island of Robinson Crusoe, to understand how these writers used and depicted "utopia" to reflect political, religious and social mores of the time.
Abstract: Interest in islands grew rapidly during the Early Modern period as many explorers, merchants, monarchs and political commentators perceived islands as earthly paradises or magical loci of extreme riches. This paper presents an alternative strand of the period's ‘islomania’, where the newly discovered islands were imagined as loci of wilderness: empty lands that human ingenuity and hard work could be ‘improved’ into a utopia. Triumphal narratives of conquering nature were based on the newfound optimism inspired by fifteenth century humanism and the tenets of Early Modern natural philosophy. However, processes of ‘improvement’ cannot be thought of as apolitical or dislocated as they are often embedded in the colonialist narratives of the time. By examining a series of imaginary ‘utopian’ islands of the Early Modern period, including Utopia, New Atlantis, The Isle of Pines and the island of Robinson Crusoe, this paper dismantles binary conceptions of Early Modern mythical islands as paradise/hell, utopia/dystopia to a more nuanced understanding of how these writers utilised and depicted ‘utopia’ to reflect political, religious and social mores of the time.

8 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023244
2022672
202192
2020142
2019141