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by Leong Hang-Tat. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One --- The Concepts of Utopia and Dystopia in Literature --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter Two --- The Early H. G. Wells: The Time Machine --- p.30 / Chapter Chapter Three --- From Dystopia to Utopia: Wells's Ambivalence in When the Sleeper Wakes --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Utopia and the Scientific World State: A Modern Utopia --- p.68 / Conclusion --- p.91 / Notes --- p.97 / Works Cited --- p.105

This thesis examines Franc;oise de Graffigny's eighteenthcentury novel, Lettres d'une Peruvienne. focusing on the aspects that demonstrate its consideration as a utopian work, or moreover, as a feminist utopian work. The first chapter is developed from the premise about utopian fiction that the author's life must be considered since it is out of his or her "lived social experience" that utopian visions are born. Utopias, many have argued, are born out of reactions to social inequities and injustices. This chapter thus presents and analyzes, Graffigny's life especially where it shows needs for a future utopia. The second chapter explores definitions of utopias, especially feminist literary utopias, in order to build a framework for analyzing Graffigny's work. It will be shown that this novel exhibits many of the traits found in a woman's utopia as opposed to those found in a man's. The third and fourth chapters directly analyze the text, Lettres d'une Peruvienne, using the research from the previous chapters as the groundwork to draw out the utopian aspects of the novel.

Five "critical" utopias by Quebec women writers ( L'Euguelionne and Le pique-nique sur l'Acropole by Louky Bersianik; Le silence de la Cite and Chroniques du Pays des Meres by Elisabeth Vonarburg and L'Espace du diamant by Esther Rochon) make up the corpus of this thesis which aims to explore how the three novelists exploit the possibilities of this particular form of contemporary utopian writing. For these authors, the transformation of society depends upon the transformation of the individual. We therefore propose to examine the ways in which Bersianik, Vonarburg and Rochon represent, through the experiences of their characters, the social construction of individual identity. For our corpus, this entails a study both of the representations of gender and of the role of language in the construction of identity. We explore gender from a feminist perspective by examining the initial dystopian situation of the individual living in society; we then analyze the positive (i.e. eutopian) process of change undergone by the individual. / This thesis begins by exploring a definition of literary utopia. We then trace the major periods in the history of literary utopia to provide background for our corpus. In chapter two, we examine the ways in which Bersianik, Vonarburg and Rochon denounce, through their fictional representations of the individual, dystopian configurations of gender. In particular, we study various "structural" metaphors used by the authors to interrogate the social role of women and the status of the female body in patriarchal society. In chapter three, we examine the new configurations of social and sexual identity proposed by the authors. We then study the author's treatment of the role of language in the social construction of individual identity in chapter four. After defining "sociolect" and introducing "sexualect", we apply these concepts to the study of the critique of sexist language and discourses of authority in our corpus. In chapter five, we explore how the authors employ discursive strategies, such as parody and "defamiliarization", to alter language and thus inscribe female subjectivity in language (Bersianik and Vonarburg) and to liberate individuals from the imprisonment of authoritarian discourses (Bersianik, Vonarburg and Rochon). Lastly, we find that after having examined the human condition in dystopian societies, our authors propose social projects that are infinitely dynamic and mutable rather than fixed models of an ideal social state.

This doctoral thesis explores the contexts of utopian writing and thinking in the Nahda, the Arab 'Awakening' of the long nineteenth century. Utopian forms of social imagination were responses to fundamental changes in the societies of the Arab-Ottoman world brought about by integration into a capitalist world economy and a European-dominated political system. Much Nahda writing was permeated by a sense of a 'New Age' opening and of wide horizons for future change - and this was not simply illusory, but a direct response to actual and massive changes being wrought in the writers' social world. My study focusses on Egypt and Bilad al-Sham in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, from the early 1830s to the mid-1870s. An initial chapter offers a definition of the social classes and groups which contributed to the Nahda in these years - such as the Beiruti bourgeoisie and the Egyptian-Ottoman official class - drawing on the work of Arab Marxists such as Mahdi 'Amil and social historians such as Bruce Masters. The following chapters deal in detail with writings produced by three distinct cultural formations within the Nahda movement, and with different aspects of their social imagination. Chapter 2 examines the discourse of civilisation (tamaddun) through the work of the Beiruti writers Khalil al-Khuri and Butrus al-Bustani in the 1850s and 1860s. Chapter 3 deals with Nahda writers' sense of their place within the European-dominated world, mainly through translations of geography books made by Rifa'a al-Tahtawi in Mehmed Ali's Egypt in the 1830s and 1840s. Chapter 4 examines the utopian aspirations of the Nahda, through a close study of the major utopian literary work of the period, Fransis Marrash's Ghabat al-Haqq (The Forest of Justice, 1865). Finally, a conclusion places my study in relation to other recent work in the field of 'Nahda studies'.

The thesis deals with the Utopian and dystopian aspects of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home. To provide a basis for comparison with the endeavours of previous utopists, the first part is devoted to a historical account of literary Utopias, and to an examination of the signposts of the genre. This history is restricted to practical blueprints for the ideal commonwealth and excludes creations of pure fantasy. In tracing Utopian development from Plato to Wells, the influence of historical events and the mainstreams of thought, such as Renaissance humanism, the Reformation, the rising importance of science, the discovery of new lands, the Enlightenment, Locke's Theory of Perfectability, Bentham's utilitarianism, the Industrial Revolution, socialism, the French Revolution, Darwinism, and the conflict between capital and labour is demonstrated. It is also shown how the long-range results of the Russian Revolution and the two world wars shattered all Utopian visions, leading to the emergence of the dystopia, and how the author reversed this negative trend in the second part of the twentieth century. In a study of forms of Utopian presentation, the claim is made that The Dispossessed features the first Utopia that qualifies as a novel: not only does the author break with the genre's tradition of subordinating the characters to the proposal, she also creates the conflict necessary for novelistic structure by juxtaposing her positive societies with negative ones. In part two, the Utopias and dystopias of both books are examined, and their features compared to previous endeavours in the genre. The observation is made that although the author favours anarchism as a political theory, she is more deeply committed to the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, seeing in its ideals the only way to a harmonious and just existence for all. In order to prove her point, Le Guin renders her Utopias less than perfect, placing one society into an inhospitable environment and showing the other as suffering from genetic damage; this suggests that the ideal life does not rest in societal organization or beneficent surroundings, but in the minds of the inhabitants: this frame of mind—if not inherent in a culture—can be achieved by living in accordance with the tao. Lastly, an effort is made to determine the anthropological models upon which Utopian proposals are constructed. The theory is put forth that all non-governed, egalitarian Utopias represent a return to the societal arrangements of early man, when his communities were still small and decentralized, and before occupational specialization began to set in; that all democratic forms of government are taken from the Greek examples, that More's Utopia might well have been modelled on the Athenian clans of the pre-Cleisthenes era, and that the Kesh society of Always Coming Home is based exclusively on the kinship systems of the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Carlos Eduardo Ornelas Berriel / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T05:54:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monteiro_ReginaMariaCarpentieri_M.pdf: 4936418 bytes, checksum: 16ab7559c30a6f7835948cf638b29448 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho consiste em examinar A Cidade do Sol, utopia de Tommaso Campanella, redigida em 1602, sob o prisma da Filosofia do Direito. As leis da cidade fundam-se em uma lei eterna, que exprime a arte e a sabedoria divinas. O supremo soberano, Hoh ou Metafísico, detém o poder espiritual e temporal. Ele é ao mesmo tempo governante, cientista e sacerdote. A identificação do conceito de direito em A Cidade do Sol, as fontes das leis da urbe e os princípios norteadores de seu ordenamento jurídico deu se a partir do sistema penal e processual da cidade, dos usos e costumes imaginários dos habitantes, do sistema e forma de governo, das noções de Estado e indivíduo, autoridade e livre arbítrio e propriedade e trabalho. O estudo está dividido em três capítulos. O primeiro apresenta uma breve biografia de Campanella. O segundo trata de A Cidade do Sol e, brevemente, do gênero literário utópico. O terceiro aborda a filosofia jurídica na utopia. Um apêndice é dedicado às noções de lei natural e lei positiva desde o pensamento grego até o renascentista / Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to examine The City of the Sun, a utopian text written in 1602, by Tommaso Campanella, which considers the Philosophy of Law. The laws of the city lie in an eternal law, which expresses the divine wisdom. A supreme sovereign, Metaphysician or Hoh, holds laic and ecclesiastical powers. He is at the same time a governor, a scientist and a priest. The legal system guiding principles identification was developed based on the solar criminal justice system, on the inhabitants habits and customs, on the system and form of government, on the notions of State and individual, on the free will versus authority, on the working principle and property. The dissertation was divided in three parts. The first chapter is about Campanella's life. The second one examines The City of the Sun and the utopian literary genre. The third chapter discusses the juridical philosophy in Campanella's utopia. An appendix is devoted to notions of natural law and positive law from Greek thought until the Renaissance / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestra em Teoria e História Literária

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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the genre of dystopian fiction in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta in which a futuristic police state, run by a totalitarian regime is portrayed. Since V for Vendetta draws on a number of other dystopian texts, New Historicist theory is employed which begins its analysis of literary texts by attempting to look at other texts as well as the historical context in which it originated, to aid in the understanding of that text. Therefore, V for Vendetta with its thorough character development and multi-dimensional storyline that the larger format of the graphic novel allows, is studied alongside other highly regarded novels. The characteristics of the nightmarish anti-utopia is identified and analysed in V for Vendetta by looking at real examples of totalitarian regimes from history. The chapters are divided into what I identified as the main themes of the totalitarian dystopia. Chapter one explains the concept of the utopia in order to grasp the concept of dystopia, and more specifically, the Totalitarian dystopia. Chapter two looks at the social structure of V for Vendetta as well as the common Totalitarian dystopia. Chapter three discusses the issue of censorship which is a recurring theme in dystopian fiction. Chapter four examines the manner in which the totalitarian regime manipulates the populace of the dystopia through propaganda. Chapter five discusses the systems of surveillance and lack of privacy in the Totalitarian dystopia and a chapter on the protagonist in dystopia concludes this study. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studiestuk word die genre van distopiese fiksie in die grafiese roman, V for Vendetta behandel, wat ’n futuristiese polisiestaat teen die agtergrond van ’n totalitêre staatsbestel uitbeeld. Omdat V for Vendetta by soveel ander distopiese tekste leen, word dit vanuit die teoretiese oogpunt van New Historicism bestudeer, wat in die ontleding van ’n roman ander tekste asook die geskiedkundige konteks van daardie roman ondersoek, ten einde dit beter te begryp. Daarom word V for Vendetta, wat vanweë die grafiese roman se langer formaat wat ruimte skep vir deeglike karakterontwikkeling en ’n veelvlakkige storielyn, as volwaardige roman naas ander hoogaangeskrewe romans behandel. Aan die hand van ware voorbeelde van totalitêre regimes uit die geskiedenis word die eienskappe eie aan ’n nagmerriestaat in V for Vendetta geïdentifiseer en geanaliseer en dit is waardeur ek my laat lei het ten opsigte van die hoofstukindeling. In hoofstuk een word die begrip van utopie eers duidelik gemaak om die distopie, en meer spesifiek die Totalitêre distopie te verstaan. In hoofstuk twee word daar gekyk na die sosiale samestelling en magstruktuur binne V for Vendetta en die Totalitêre distopie in die algemeen. Hoofstuk drie bespreek die kwessie van sensuur - ’n gewilde tema in distopiese fiksie. In hoofstuk vier word ondersoek ingestel na die manier waarop die Totalitêre-distopie die burgery breinspoel deur propaganda. Hoofstuk vyf bespreek die verskynsel van bewaking en die skending van privaatheid in die totaliêre distopie en in die sesde hoofstuk word daar gefokus op die protagonis in die distopie.

The present project sets out to discover what the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan ('A Tale of Marriage Destinies that will Bring Society to its Senses'), an anonymous novel of manners from seventeenth-century China, can tell us about life in the world out of which it emerged. Seventeenth-century records depict China on the verge of modernity as a world torn between the traditional agricultural society and the new challenges of urban life, commerce and a money economy. The shifts from conventional norms and values gave rise to concepts of Utopia and anti-utopia: to nostalgia for the lost paradise of the past and to apocalyptic satire on present conditions. Scholars have noted the prominence of utopianism in seventeenthcentury fiction but no detailed study has been undertaken so far. Utopianism is here explored in terms of the indigenous Chinese traditions. The text of the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan is analysed to see how it perceives and reflects the seventeenth century Chinese world. Utopia serves as an analytical construct to recreate a glimpse of society and the moral evaluation of the world through the eyes of a contemporary observer. The body of the thesis analyses three major motifs in the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan: the healers, the elite and the mother. Critical comparison with other contemporary literary and historical sources attempts to place the novel into its context. The visions of Utopia and anti-utopia provide insight into the dreams and nightmares as seventeenth-century Chinese minds may have perceived them, shedding light on the vernacular culture as opposed to the officially recognised and imperially ordained culture of China.