What is a utopia? Definition, history, classification and features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The map of the world, where utopia is marked, is not even worth looking at, because it ignores the country to which humanity is relentlessly striving.

Oscar Wilde

Each of us once heard the term "utopia". Today, books and films are often made in the fantasy genre of utopia. What is a utopia and what features does it have? How did this term come about? Read.

"Birth" of utopia

The term comes from ancient Greek and means "a place that does not exist" (u topos). According to another version, utopia is translated from Greek as "the best place" (eu topos). Today, this is the name of a genre of literature close to science fiction. In such books, the author gives a description of the ideal, in his opinion, society and the social system. It has been known for centuries what it is - a utopia, but the word itself became popular thanks to Thomas More.

In 1516, the writer and philosopher Thomas More wrote a book in Latin. The book had an incredibly long title, which is rare in the literature. It was called "The Golden Book, as useful as it is funny about the best devicestate and the new island of Utopia. It was simply called "Utopia" for short. The word soon came to be used to describe books of this genre.

Mor divided his work into two volumes. In the first, he condemns the social order of the time. The writer reproaches royal despotism, the debauchery of the clergy, and opposes the death pen alty. The second is the revelation of the author, hidden behind the screen of a fantastic plot. Both books are completely different, but logically inseparable from each other.

However, Thomas More was not the first to use the term. It was known to ancient philosophers. For example, the word is found in Plato in his treatise "State", where he describes the ideal, in his opinion, power. As a prototype, Plato used the political structure of Sparta, but at the same time eliminated the negative features of this state - the lack of citizens, some unnecessarily cruel laws, endemic corruption (here even the kings took bribes).

That is, utopia shows us a picture of an ideal world in which everyone is happy. A world that is theoretically possible in the future, but extremely unlikely. There is no poverty, unemployment, suffering.

That's what utopia is in literature. The stories and novels of this genre have always played an important role in assessing the future and shaping the reader's consciousness. Utopia shows various options for the future, draws the further movement of society. This function of hers has survived to this day, but has somewhat transformed into science fiction. Now write abouttechnologies and opportunities that may be available to mankind in the future - life on other planets, etc. At the same time, utopia is characterized by sharp criticism of the modern social system, the author's disagreement with it.

Utopia and dystopia

Having considered what utopia is and what its meaning is, let's move on to another term - dystopia. This word is understood as a state structure based on negative factors. That is, he denies the possibility of the existence of utopia, showing what a catastrophe the pursuit of it will turn out to be. With the initial tendency of society towards the ideal, its complete opposite is formed.

Synonymous with dystopia is dystopia, which means "bad place" (from the Greek dis topos). The definition of the word "utopia" has an unambiguous answer - it is a non-existent place.

The main characters of dystopian works oppose themselves to the regime. There are hundreds of such examples in the literature. The most famous stories of this genre are "451 degrees Fahrenheit" (R. Bradbury), "1984" (J. Orwell), "The Hunger Games" (Collins) and many others.

Utopia and Christianity

Writers consider Christianity the most grandiose utopia. After all, the commandments of God teach us not to steal, not to kill, not to envy, to respect our loved ones and to treat everyone as equals. If everyone followed the biblical commandments, this would lead to the formation of an ideal society.

However, utopian motives are found in all religions of our world. In addition, they can also be found inmythologies of different peoples and even in fairy tales, both folk and copyright.

History of Utopia

Utopia has been present in the minds of mankind since ancient times. However, then people attributed it to the past, not to the future. These were legends about happy countries that once existed. Take, for example, the country of Hyperborea, in which the ancient Greeks believed, Belovodie, the Oponsky kingdom, found in Russian legends. In fact, all myths, legends and fairy tales were based precisely on utopian motives.

The definition of the term "utopia" was formed thanks to the works of ancient Greek philosophers. Among them, Plato stood out with his "State".

The revival of the genre

The utopian genre was later revived by Thomas More. He differed from ancient philosophers in that he was looking for a solution to the problem of the social system of those times at the intersection of sociology, politics, and philosophy. He believed that the future he wrote about could be achieved through a radical reorganization of society. And you need to start with the emergence of fair laws, the concepts of equality and brotherhood.

Mor became the ancestor of the so-called social utopia. Its creators believed that changing the future was possible with enough effort.

Another well-known representative of this genre is Tommaso Campanella, who wrote "City of the Sun". Owen, Morelli, Saint-Simon, Munzer also worked in the genre of utopia.

Starting from the 18th century, the so-called state novel appeared in Europe, whichtold about the journeys of heroes through utopian countries. These novels, for the most part, contained a detailed description of the political system of these powers.

Improve or destroy?

Throughout these centuries, attempts were made to radically change the social system, which were accompanied by the popularization of utopian works. But it seems that people did not quite understand what utopia meant. And all ended in human suffering and death. One of the most violent measures to change the world was taken by socialists and fascists in the 20th century. Particularly distinguished were those who thought too radically - the communists and the Nazis.

After that, utopian books began to be perceived by the reader in a completely different way. Even well-known works that make up the classics of this genre have lost their admirers. They began to be considered a description of a terrible mechanism that suppresses the will of society. In a certain sense, it was. In all books written in the genre of utopia, society is a gray mass that blindly follows the established order. It sacrifices its individuality for the sake of a well-fed and calm life. But is it right?

Distinguishing features of utopia

The classification of the hallmarks of utopia is as follows:

The presence of some other reality, an isolated world with its own control system. Usually in utopian works there is no temporal extension. The society created by the author seems to be frozen in immobility.
Historic althe prerequisites are of no interest to the authors. They create their own world, not relying on the limitations of the real world. That is why, for the reader, a utopia is something unrealizable, because it does not have a constructive basis. Everything here is created on the imagination of the writer. However, some books of this genre still contain a detailed description of exactly how to come to the perfect order described in the work.
Utopia is devoid of any internal conflicts. People obey the system and are happy with it. But at the same time, complete unanimity makes them a solid gray mass, devoid of individuality.
In the novels of this genre, satire is most often absent, since the description of the world is opposed to reality.

Despite the fact that the definition of utopia is an unreal world created by the imagination of the writer, the philosopher N. A. Berdyaev thought otherwise. He argued that utopia is one of the options for the development of the future. It may be more than real. In addition, Berdyaev wrote, human nature is such that it needs faith in the best in all spheres of life. Today, even architects are developing projects that can safely be called utopia. In the photo - one of them, the heavenly city of the future.

But despite the popularity of utopian books, criticism has accompanied the genre throughout its history. For example, George Orwell, one of the most famous utopian writers ("Animal Farm"), was sure that such books are lifeless, devoid of individuality. He himself wrote in the genre of dystopia. All utopias, says Orwell, are perfect, butdeprived of true happiness. In his essay, the writer cites the opinion of a Catholic writer. He argues that now that humanity is able to create a utopia, he faces another question: how to avoid it?

Types of utopia

There are two types of utopia:

Technocratic. That is, social problems are solved by accelerating the scientific and technological process.
Social, which offers a solution to the problem through a change in social order.

Utopia and science fiction

Literary scholars have different opinions about utopia and science fiction. Some believe that they are closely related, but belong to different genre categories. Others are sure that the classical utopia has been transformed into science fiction under the yoke of modernity. After all, many works of science fiction writers are either utopian novels, or perform their function - the image of a world opposite to ours. For example, "The Andromeda Nebula", "The Hour of the Bull" by Efremov, as well as "Noon, 22nd Century" by the Strugatsky brothers.

But in the second half of the 80s, two dystopias appear that characterize the future as a complete catastrophe. These are Nabokov's "Defector" and Voynich's "Moscow-2049". At the same time, the works themselves are very different. The first is darkness and horror, the second is filled with the unbridled fantasy of the author and satire. This confirms that utopia as a genre continues to live in literature.

Conclusion

Today we discussedwhat is utopia. The meaning of this term is described above. In modern literature, the genre remains popular and in demand. Utopian works are increasingly replenishing the shelves of bookstores. Ideal worlds still live only in literature.