The literary term utopia denotes an illusionary place that projects the notion of a perfect society to the reader. Here, the “perfect society” refers to ideal conditions achieved within the material world, as opposed to the expected idealism of afterlife in Christianity or other religions. Further, the citizens presiding in such utopias are bearers of a perfect moral code, or at the least, every violator of the moral code is harshly punished. A utopian society is one where all social evils have been cured.
Utopia and Heterotopia
An important distinction to be appreciated is that between an imaginary utopia and a live heterotopia. However, the terms should not be treated as opposites of one another. They denote a midway experience, with instances that are both real and unreal. Most of the examples that Foucault provides of heterotopias include several utopian aspects. However, the relationship between these two notions has tended to be ignored in the interpretation of heterotopia.
Description of Utopian Literature
A piece of writing that concerns itself with the description of a perfect society in the physical world, as opposed to the perfection of afterlife, is considered to be utopian literature. The original motives behind utopian novels were political, social, and philosophical. Plato’s The Republic, written around 380 BC, is usually considered the first example of Utopia in history.
Some traces of utopian elements can be found in Arthurian literature – in the idealization of King Arthur’s court at Camelot – but the trend followed by medieval poets involved romanticizing an imaginary past, rather than using hypothetical utopias for the purposes of criticizing political institutions and suggesting alternatives. It was by the time of Sir Thomas More’s book Utopia, written in 1516, that the notion of utopia was practically manifested, and his name for the imaginary kingdom became the new name for the writing genre.
Utopia examples show common characteristics, including the following:
- An elaborate description of the geographic landscape, often given by guides native to the region.
- The narrator or protagonist of the story is an outsider to the utopian society.
- He is very skeptical of the society’s modern political, social, economic, or ethical problems.
One of the common misunderstandings about utopian models is that they serve to project a better way of life. To the contrary, the reason behind such literature is to help the reader envision the problems, paradoxes, or faults entrenched within such a political framework.
Examples of Utopia in Literature
The examples quoted below portray various scenarios of utopia:
- Description of the Republic of Christianopolis, by Johannes Valentinus Andreae, 1619
- The City of the Sun, by Tommaso Campanella, 1602
- New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon, 1627
- Nova Solyma, the Ideal City, by Samuel Gott, circa 1649
- The Law of Freedom in a Platform, by Gerrard Winstanley, 1652
- Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, 1888
- News from Nowhere, by William Morris, 1890
- Freeland: a Social Anticipation, by Theodor Hertzka, 1891
- A Modern Utopia, by H. G. Wells, 1905
Function of Utopia
Over time, the vision encapsulating the notion of utopia has suffered radical transformations. Events such as war, church reform, revolution, and economic change have contributed toward the construction of a new type of utopia.
The term utopia formulated new shapes and new prefixes, each type having its own function and its own use. They are generally employed as a means of constructing an organized society in the reader’s mind. The writer makes use of the tool to highlight the discrepancies prevalent within an existing political and legal framework.
A utopian society is framed in such a manner as to present the idea of an ideal sociopolitical culture to the reader. The writer is presenting his audience with a standard example of a socially and morally fit society with the use of utopia, to make them realize the various deficiencies of their existing societal framework.
Utopia is a tool for exposing the flaws prevalent within an existing political structure. Further, the tool has been widely employed by writers who intended to make an impact on the consciences of readers. The writer uses utopia in order to portray a scenic picture in the eyes of the reader, in an attempt to make him fully appreciate the various diverging factors contributing towards the failings of the existing society. It deals with constructing a standard sociopolitical society in the reader’s mind, in order to criticize the prevalent legal norms.
The concept of literature as a means of discussing or propounding alternative societies dates back almost as long as literature itself. Plato's Republic, usually considered the first example of the genre, dates from around 370 BC.
The word utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More
A utopia can be defined as an ideal or perfect place or state, or any visionary system of political or social perfection. In literature, it refers to a detailed description of a nation or commonwealth ordered according to a system which the author proposes as a better way of life than any known to exist, a system that could be instituted if the present one could be cancelled and people could start over.
The word itself was coined by Sir Thomas More in his 1516 book of the same name, [his imaginary perfect island was called Utopia]. The roots of the word are from the Greek ou [not] and topos [place], thus meaning "no place" or "nowhere", although there are also overtones of "good place" from the homonymous Greek prefix eu meaning "good".
In common parlance, it has come to mean an impractical or idealistic scheme for social and political reform, but the original objective of the utopian novel was political, social and philosophical.
New Harmony, Indiana, as envisaged by Robert Owen
Over the years, various attempts have been made to establish real-life utopian communities, many of them in the United States. Several experimental communities were set up in the USA in the 1830's and 1840's following the doctrines of Charles Fourier. New Harmony was established in Indiana under the leadership of a Scottish industrialist named Robert Owen. The Icarians [followers of Frenchman Etienne Cabet's philosophies] established settlements in several US states in 1848. The Oneida Community was a utopian commune in Oneida, New York, also begun in 1848. The Shakers, an English Protestant group, built villages in eight states in the 1840's, as did the Amana colonists in Iowa in the 1850's and the Hutterites in the Dakotas and Western Canada in the 1870's.
Elsewhere, New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay, and there are, even today, Finnish utopian colonies worldwide, including Sointula in Western Canada and Colonia Finlandesa in Argentina. Arguably, kolkhozes [a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union] and Israeli kibbutzes are utopian communities.
In the following sections, I have listed a selection of utopian fiction as an introduction to the genre for the interested reader. For each book, I have noted the publication date, the country of the author, and a very brief synopsis of the plot and description of the utopian society.
It is by no means exhaustive, and the selection of individual titles is my own, although I have tried to include those novels most commonly considered to be utopias. It does not include many of the more theoretical philosophical treatises or political tracts, but my intention is to focus on novels with some entertainment value as well.
I would be happy to hear from individuals who would like to see changes my list or to point out any gross omissions or errors [e-mail].
I have indicated which books are, in general, best described as utopias [] and which dystopias [] and which have elements of both [], although to some extent this is of course a matter of personal opinion.
I have also tried to give some indication, by a system of stars, of which are the better-known and more classic utopias [], which are second-rank in the genre [] and which are books where the utopian element is more peripheral []. This is not intended as an evaluation of their value as literature, nor necessarily of my own personal preferences.
Finally, I have provided links to Amazon pages for the US [], Canada [] and the UK [] for those who might wish to buy the books for themselves [the cheaper paperback editions where possible, and English translations if available].
The list is arranged chronologically, and split for convenience into the following time-spans:
- BC to 16th Century- 17th to 18th Century
- 19th Century
- Early 20th Century
- Mid 20th Century
- Late 20th Century
There is also an alphabetical listing by title and by author for added convenience.