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Utopias and Dystopias
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| • Definition • Themes and Motifs • Key Works and Figures • | |
| Definition | |
Utopias are descriptions of ideal societies. Great utopias are generally moral or political in intention and thus are not really science fiction. Dystopias are the opposite of utopias; that is, they are descriptions of societies that have gone horribly wrong. Usually such societes are marked by rigid governmental oversight and control. Like utopias, dystopias are often political in intention; however, many dystopias also make use of the conventions of science fiction. |
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Plato (c. 427-c. 348 B.C.) wrote The Republic, the first utopia. Thomas More, minister to King Henry VIII of England, later martyred for his refusal to acknowledge Henry as the head of the Church in England, coined the term "utopia" from the Greek meaning "not a place," or "nowhere."More's Utopia was published first in Latin (1516) and later in English (1551). |
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| Themes and Motifs | |
Utopias depict some sort of perfect or ideal society; generally these works are set on other planets and the characters have restricted participation in the society to groups who adhere to a certain set of beliefs. Dystopias depict a downtrodden society, usually totalitarian in government. |
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| Key Works and Figures | |
| The Russian Yevgeney Zamyatin wrote We (1920), a dystopia, that is, a work about a society that develops completely opposite from a utopia. | |
| Charlotte Perkins Gilman, best known for her often-anthologized short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," wrote Herland (magazine publication, 1915; book 1979), about an island inhabited by a race of parthenogenic (i.e., able to reproduce by themselves) females. | |
| 1984 by George Orwell is probably the most famous modern dystopia. Other well-known dystopias include The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Children of Men by P. D. James. | |
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