We live in an age of rapid change. The advance of science and
technology, throughout history, has culminated in periods of transition
when social values have had to adapt to a changed environment. Such
times have proved fertile ground for the expansion of the imagination.
Utopian literature offers a vast archive of information concerning the
relationship between scientific and technological progress and social
change.
Alterations in the most basic machinery of society inspired utopian
authors to write of distant and future worlds which had achieved a state
of harmony and plenty. The dilemmas which writers faced were particular
to their era, but there also emerged certain universal themes and
questions: What is the best organisation of society? What tools would
be adequate to the task? What does it mean to be human?
The dividing line on these issues revolves around two opposed
beliefs. Some perceived the power inherent in technology to effect the
greatest improvement in the human condition. Others were convinced that
the organisation of the social order must come first so as to create an
environment sympathetic to perceived human needs. There are,
necessarily, contradictions in such a division. They can be seen plainly
in More's Utopia itself. More wanted to see new science and technique
developed. But he also condemned the social consequences which
inevitably flowed from the process of discovery. These consequences led
More to create a utopia based on social reorganisation. In the main,
the utopias of Francis Bacon, Edward Bellamy and the later H. G. Wells
accepted science, while the work of William Morris, Aldous Huxley and
Kurt Vonnegut rejected science in preference for a different social order.
More's Utopia and Bacon's New Atlantis were written at a time when
feudal, agriciTfural society wasbeeing transformed by new discoveries
and techniques. In a later age, Bellamy's Looking Backward and Morris's
News From Nowhere offer contrary responses to society at the height of
the Industrial evolution. These four authors serve as a prelude to the
main area of the thesis which centres on the twentieth century. Wells,
though his first novel appeared in 1895, produced the vast bulk of his
work in the current century. Huxley acts as an appropriate balance to
Wells and also exemplifies the shift from utopia to dystopia. The last
section of the thesis deals with the work of Kurt Vonnegut and includes
an interview with that author.
The twentieth century has seen the proliferation of dystopias,
portraits of the disastrous consequences of the headlong pursuit of
science and technology, unallied to human values. Huxley and Vonnegut
crystallised the fears of a modern generation: that we create a
soulless, mechanised, urban nightmare. The contemporary fascination
with science in literature is merely an extension of a process with a
long tradition and underlying theme. The advance of science and
technology created the physical and intellectual environment for utopian
authors which determined the form and content of their visions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4225 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Garvey, Brian Thomas |
| Contributors | Stonier, Tom, Smith, Ken |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Postgraduate School of Studies in Science and Society. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doctoral, Thesis, PhD |
| Rights | © 1985 Garvey, B. T. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk). |
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