Its commonly anti-collectivist character is stressed, and the addition of other themes-the dangers of science and technology, of social inequality, of corporate dictatorship, of nuclear war-are also traced. Here the tradition is traced from early reactions to the French Revolution. In the most comprehensive treatment of the literary and real expressions of the concept, Dystopia: A Natural History, Claeys offers a historical approach to these definitions. Some of these are anti-utopias, which criticise attempts to implement various concepts of utopia. For example, Claeys and Sargent define literary dystopias as societies imagined as substantially worse than the society in which the author writes. Some scholars, such as Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent, make certain distinctions between typical synonyms of dystopias. Though dystopia became the more popular term, cacotopia finds occasional use Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, said it was a better fit for Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four because "it sounds worse than dystopia". ĭecades before the first documented use of the word "dystopia" was "cacotopia"/"kakotopia" (using Ancient Greek: κακόs, "bad, wicked") originally proposed in 1818 by Jeremy Bentham, "As a match for utopia (or the imagined seat of the best government) suppose a cacotopia (or the imagined seat of the worst government) discovered and described". What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable". It was used to denounce the government's Irish land policy: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. Additionally, dystopia was used as an antonym for utopia by John Stuart Mill in one of his 1868 Parliamentary Speeches ( Hansard Commons) by adding the prefix "dys" ( Ancient Greek: δυσ- "bad") to "topia", reinterpreting the initial "u" as the prefix "eu" ( Ancient Greek: ευ- "good") instead of "ou" ( Ancient Greek: οὐ "not"). "Dustopia", the original spelling of "dystopia", first appeared in Lewis Henry Younge's Utopia: or Apollo's Golden Days in 1747. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, often make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. Some authors use the term to refer to existing societies, many of which are, or have been, totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse. Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science, or technology. Famous examples include George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Dystopian societies appear in many fictional works and artistic representations, particularly in stories set in the future. Despite certain overlaps, dystopian fiction is distinct from post-apocalyptic fiction, and an undesirable society is not necessarily dystopian.
Brave earth community free#
Themes typical of a dystopian society include: complete control over the people in a society through the usage of propaganda, heavy censoring of information or denial of free thought, worshiping an unattainable goal, the complete loss of individuality, and heavy enforcement of conformity. ĭystopias are often characterized by fear or distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality, not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and vice versa. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence, and poverty. Ī dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ meaning "bad" and τόπος meaning "place" alternatively cacotopia or anti-utopia) is a speculated community or society that is undesirable or frightening. Life in Kowloon Walled City has often inspired the dystopian identity in modern media works.
0 kommentar(er)
