The Polyphony of Utopia

«Through detailed, elegant interpretations of utopian novels produced in the United States and the Soviet Union, Pavla Veselá casts aside standard commonplaces about East / West cultural divergences and reveals the critical function of utopian fiction that is shared in the two national contexts.»

(Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University)

«It is encouraging to read The Polyphony of Utopia in our cynical and desperate time. By discussing a number of Russian and American utopian novels in the light of ‘utopian realism,’ addressing the uncertainty, anxiety and doubt contained in their visions of hope, Pavla Veselá proves the importance and relevance of the transformation of today’s world toward Utopia.»

(Thomas Lahusen, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto)

Utopias – literary visions of better, more just and happier communities – have been misconceived as «mere fantasies» on the one hand and «models to implement» on the other. Building on the notion of «critical utopia» and elaborating on interpretations of literary works as contradictory and incomplete, the book analyses selected utopian and dystopian novels by five writers: Edward Bellamy, Alexander Bogdanov, Ivan Yefremov, Marge Piercy and Octavia E. Butler. It argues that departing from the conventions of realism, utopias advance credible visions of more perfect ways of living and being which are nevertheless destabilized through gothic and poetic generic elements. Unresolved issues are further explored in (utopian as well as dystopian) sequels and prequels. The novels analysed in detail include Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887 (1888) and Equality (1897), Bogdanov’s Red Star: A Utopia (1908) and Engineer Menni: A Novel of Fantasy (1913), Yefremov’s Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale (1957) and The Hour of the Bull (1970), Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) and He, She and It (1991), and Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998).