The History of Utopia and Dystopia By: Luke Meyer
Utopia is a relatively new word for an archaic concept. According to Sheri Metzger, the word “Utopia” wasn’t coined until 1516 with Sir Thomas Moore’s social commentary Utopia (1). People took to the word utopia favorably, applying the word to their own concept of Heaven, political system, and even society depicted in Plato’s Republic. The concept of Utopia was appealing as a vague idea; it was downright marketable when it obtained a common name. Joyce Hertzler lists Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Campanella’s City of the Sun, Harrington’s Oceania, and of course More’s Utopia as key social commentaries that spread the idea of Utopia (127-165), but in truth any story that contains a completely happy society furthers the idea of Utopia.
The concept of a tangible Utopia was particularly popular because it coincided with the growing notoriety of secularism. Prophets had been teaching about celestial utopias since antiquity (Hertzler 7), but a utopia by the people for the people was all but unheard of in Thomas More’s Vatican-centric medieval era. The idea was attractive to religious idealists intent on creating a “City on a Hill” as well as the secular population who did not wish to place trust in the so-called afterlife rather than take action on Earth.
However, politicians, philosophers, and theologians alike are all fond of dualism in one form or another, and thus the term Dystopia was coined. David Sisk explains that Dystopia came into use as a counterpoint to Utopian literature, such as Edward Bellamy’s 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward (1). The first attempts at dystopia were, for the most part, simply criticisms that targeted the unrealistic and occasionally unethical side of popular utopian novels.
Dystopia as a genre was not popular at first due to the general air of optimism permeating the early twentieth century. However, dystopian literature quickly gained popularity in areas of social and political upheaval. Following the Russian Communist revolution of 1905, for example, Yevgeny Zamyatin published his novel We in 1920 to illustrate the dehumanizing nature of Communism and explain the futility of government revolution. While We was eventually recognized as a cornerstone of the dystopian genre, it was not published widely enough to have been directly influential to the general population. Rather, The First World War left the general population feeling disillusioned to the fact that they themselves were living in a kind of utopia-turned-dystopia. Drawing on early attempts on Dystopia and playing on the hopes and fears of the general public, Aldous Huxley penned Brave New World and grabbed the attention of a world no longer interested in achieving Utopia, but rather in preventing Dystopia.
The concept of a tangible Utopia was particularly popular because it coincided with the growing notoriety of secularism. Prophets had been teaching about celestial utopias since antiquity (Hertzler 7), but a utopia by the people for the people was all but unheard of in Thomas More’s Vatican-centric medieval era. The idea was attractive to religious idealists intent on creating a “City on a Hill” as well as the secular population who did not wish to place trust in the so-called afterlife rather than take action on Earth.
However, politicians, philosophers, and theologians alike are all fond of dualism in one form or another, and thus the term Dystopia was coined. David Sisk explains that Dystopia came into use as a counterpoint to Utopian literature, such as Edward Bellamy’s 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward (1). The first attempts at dystopia were, for the most part, simply criticisms that targeted the unrealistic and occasionally unethical side of popular utopian novels.
Dystopia as a genre was not popular at first due to the general air of optimism permeating the early twentieth century. However, dystopian literature quickly gained popularity in areas of social and political upheaval. Following the Russian Communist revolution of 1905, for example, Yevgeny Zamyatin published his novel We in 1920 to illustrate the dehumanizing nature of Communism and explain the futility of government revolution. While We was eventually recognized as a cornerstone of the dystopian genre, it was not published widely enough to have been directly influential to the general population. Rather, The First World War left the general population feeling disillusioned to the fact that they themselves were living in a kind of utopia-turned-dystopia. Drawing on early attempts on Dystopia and playing on the hopes and fears of the general public, Aldous Huxley penned Brave New World and grabbed the attention of a world no longer interested in achieving Utopia, but rather in preventing Dystopia.
Referenced Sources
Hertzler, Joyce Oramel. The History of Utopian Thought. New York: Cooper Square, 1965. Print.
Metzger, Sheri E. "Overview of 'The Faerie Queene'." Epics for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Gale Power Search. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Sisk, David W. "Dystopia." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 606-610. Gale Power Search. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Metzger, Sheri E. "Overview of 'The Faerie Queene'." Epics for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Gale Power Search. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Sisk, David W. "Dystopia." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 606-610. Gale Power Search. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.