Utopia and Dystopia in Late Nineteenth-century and Early Twentieth-century British Literature

Abstract

This dissertation will analyze the subgenres of utopia and dystopia in British literature ranging from the mid and late nineteenth century until the first half of the twentieth century. With the development of new political movements, such as Marxism or Women’s Rights movement, along with the scientific and technological progress that occurred in these decades, many authors wrote about their hopes and fears caused by these turbulentchanging times. They showed in their narratives how they conceived an ideal society if their ideology succeeded or how chaos and unrest would dominate the world if the opposite side prevailed in the cultural and ideological struggle. Through a well-established genre, like utopia, authors expressed their hopes and wishes for an idealized future. Since the modern birth of the genre in the sixteenth century, writers modified the principles of the genre towards new ways of expressions to articulate their thoughts and ideals, but they also innovated in the inclusion of urgent topics as a new political and social thoughts emerged in society. A new twist in the genre also acquired status in these times, the genre of dystopia, as a “utopia that went wrong” or, a mirror to a dehumanized society. Through a chronical approach to several British authors in these subgenres and their works, this dissertation aims to give a general overview of their status and development across a century characterized by continuous changes and innovations that would revolutionize human lives forever, normally splitting society in two halves, thus giving a fertile ground to utopian and dystopian fiction and establishing a dialogue in which writers and their works mutually interacted. To serve this purpose, this dissertation will be informed by major works addressing utopian and dystopian fiction, such as The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature by Gregory Claeys, whose theoretical premises will be observed when addressing the fictional works.