Concepts
of utopia and dystopia represent imaginary societies in which people
live their life either in a perfect environment, governed by the laws
that provide happiness to everyone, or in an oppressive society that
is ruled by repressive and controlled state. Origin of these concepts
can be traced to the year of 380BC, when Greek philosopher Plato
released his influential political dialogue called “Republic”. In
it, he first postulated the main themes of utopian
society and
his visions of the perfect Greek city-state that provided stable life
for all of its citizens.
The
modern world “Utopia” came to life during early years of 16th
century, in the work of the famous English philosopher Thomas Moore.
His description of utopian society gave birth to enormous wave of
utopian thought that influenced the life and works of many future
philosophers and novelist, and helped in creation of several
important political movements (most notably socialism). Utopias that
were envisioned by the minds of those authors can most easily be
divided in several distinct categories, all based on the means of
their creation – Ecology utopia, Economic utopia, Political utopia,
Religious utopia, Feminists utopia and Science and technological
utopia. 19th century gave the birth of the largest wave of utopian
thought the world has ever seen. Numerous novelist and philosophers
focused their careers on the exploration of those themes, and result
of their work influenced the audiences across the entire world. Most
notable utopian novel from that period was without a doubt “Looking
Backward”
by Edward Bellamy.
Not
all examples of utopian life were set in the theory. Some people
tried to realize the dreams postulated in the work of several
philosophers, and so the age of utopian
societies came
to life. During the 19th century, over a dozen utopian societies were
established in the United States, and few of them managed to survive
even to today.
Utopia
Over
the last two thousand years, many philosophers envisioned societies
that were governed by the perfect set of systems that would enable
its citizens to live peaceful and long lives. These utopian visions
greatly affected the rise of several political movements in our
modern history.
Utopian Fiction
The
present day literature has provided us with many great visions of
utopian societies, but the origin of the utopian fiction goes all the
way back to the instrumental work of Thomas Moore in 1516. Find out
here how did those important early works influenced modern literature
and movies.
Dystopia
Authors
of mid-20th century were first to envision futuristic societies in
which people lived in a repressive and controlled state that only
from the outside resembled a Utopia. These dark visions of the future
represent great vehicle for the investigation of concepts such as
individuality, freedom, class distinctions, repression, religion and
advanced technology.
Dystopian Fiction
In
our modern environment, works of fiction that are focused on the
futuristic visions of dark dystopias are common and widespread. These
visions of futuristic worlds produced some of the most famous novels,
movies, comics and music of our time. Here you can find out more
about them.
Dystopian
thought
End
of 19th century brought the rise of Dystopian thought. Numerous
philosophers and authors imagined the dark visions of the future
where totalitarian rulers governed the life of ordinary citizens.
Their works explored many themes of dystopian
societies -
repressive social control systems, government coercion of citizens,
influence of technology on human mind, coping mechanisms,
individuality, freedom of life and speech, censorship, sexual
repression, class distinctions, artificial life and human interaction
with the nature (and often the consequences of its destruction).
Some
of the earliest and influential works of dystopian fiction can be
contributed to the authorsH.G.
Wells (Time
Machine), Aldous
Huxley (Brave
New World)
and George
Orwell (Nineteen
Eighty-Four).
Their works paved the way to the numerous other authors, who event
today manage to envision some new aspect of life in dystopian
societies. In addition to literature, dystopian themes found its life
in many other types of mediums, such as comic books (most notably V
for Vendeta, Transmetropoliten, Y: The Last Man and Akira), music,
video games (Fallout, Deus Ex and BioShock ) television series (The
Prisoner, Dark Angel, Doctor Who and Twilight Zone) and movies
(Metropolis,Blade
Runner, A
Clockwork Orange and
Matrix).
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