Concepts of utopia and dystopia represent unreal societies in which people live either in a seamless environment, governed by the laws that provide happiness to everyone, or in an oppressive society that is ruled by repressive and controlling state. The origin of these concepts can be traced to the year of 380BC, when Plato released his “Republic”. In it, he first postulated the main themes of utopian society and his visions of the perfect Greek city-state that provided stable life for all of its citizens.
Between utopia and dystopia there is not a relationship of contradiction. First dystopia and utopia, according to literary interpretation of these two phenomena, both belong to a particular genre of science fiction with a social background, that describes imaginary places where reigns welfare and happiness (Utopia), and the terrible hypothesis of future uninhabitable worlds (dystopia).
Obviously there are differences: utopia severs ties with the past and the present place, makes a break unbridgeable between the real story and the space reserved for the utopian planning; dystopia - instead - intends to place itself in continuity with the historical process by amplifying and making tangible those negative tendencies that, if they are exposed and thwarted, lead to perverse societies.
But utopia as well as dystopia invite us to look critically at the world around us, teach us to be careful and vigilant and not to be pessimistic, not to turn in on ourselves: another world is possible. There are to be reported, however, with regard to this concept, the attempts by some authors who intend to warn utopia itself. Indeed, authors like Huxley and Berdjaev insist on the dangers of construction material, concrete utopias; but it is symbolic that just some time after Huxley is dedicated to the description of a utopia. Examples of famous dystopias of the twentieth century are: Yevgeny Zamyatin "We" (1922), Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" (1932), George Orwell's "1984" (1984).
Utopia does not rule out dystopia: they are also linked at the philosophical level; the image of the new city cherished by utopians joins the narrative of the society’s perverse dystopia, being composed of the same momentum. In other words at the base of these two attitudes there is the complaint of a reality perceived as painful and oppressive and the constructive solicitation to overcome them by the exercise of reasonableness.
Lucia Biondi in her thesis: 'Automata and inventions between utopia and dystopia' claims that "when hope turns into anguish, utopia so much acclaimed becomes nightmare and dystopia becomes apparent as much as it had been utopia. Dystopia looks like self-criticism of utopia, presents the world of hell, marked with the same rationality and geometric rigor that characterized, in a positive sense, the utopian world.
The countercultural movements will serve to criticize the current society and aspire to a world where equality reigns: the abolition of private property is a fundamental characteristic of many classic utopias. Thomas More in his island follows Plato's Republic, the rejection of all forms of private ownership, as a source of dissonance among men.
Man moves, designs and builds in a continuous balance between utopia and dystopia, dimension in which collapses and then gets up, dimension in which, however, he feels alive and active.
Obviously there are differences: utopia cuts the ties with the past and the present place, makes an unbridgeable break between the real story and the space reserved for the utopian planning; dystopia - instead - intends to place itself in continuity with the historical process by amplifying and making tangible those negative tendencies operating in the present time. There are to be reported, however, the attempts by some authors who intend to warn from utopia itself; Indeed, authors like Huxley and Berdjaev insist on the dangers of construction material, concrete utopias; but it is symbolic that just some time after Huxley is dedicated to the description of a utopia. Examples of famous dystopias of the twentieth century are: Yevgeny Zamyatin "We" (1922), Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" (1932), George Orwell's "1984" (1984).
The same More, having shown with the words of the traveler the island of Utopia, concluded by saying that he had little hope that this can be realized for our states. The impulse that drove him to think his island derived from the desire to protest against a reality, one in which the philosopher lived, highly repressive. Behind the description of Utopia lies a man nostalgic for a world that is not what it should be. Pessimism and a desire to change the state of affairs are the feelings that make, even today, Utopia a book on which to reflect.
For critics of utopia, those who intend to realize it are firmly adverse to any practice, gradualist and reformist, because, having to change the world in its entirety, they don’t think there is any need to take action on the problems and current issues. This is considered by critics in stark contrast to the modern political practice, according to which, if they could change everything, this can not be achieved through the resolution of the constituent parts of the same whole. In fact, the possibility to re-start from the beginning to rebuild a new utopian world is considered unfeasible in practical terms, because it is never possible to start again: the tradition from which it descends and the intellectual faculties of the individual are values acquired by man in the course of his life and no one can get rid of them in any way; the same ideal reason of the utopian is inevitably the result of a previous tradition.
The thesis exposed here, that utopia and dystopia are not opposites, but rather can blend into one another is gaining momentum in the field of Utopian Studies. Gregory Claeys's new book "Dystopia" (2017) defends this argument.
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