Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature

The world of utopian and dystopian fiction; the definition and origin of utopia; diving into Ursula K. LeGuin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"; exploring the ambiguities of perfect worlds; how genre functions and shapes literature.

The origins of the utopian genre, beginning with Thomas More's "Utopia" in 1516; whether More's foundational work creates the utopian genre; exploring the elements of the story to see how it sets conventions for later works.

Examining notable works produced during the two centuries following More's initial work; comparing and contrasting the ideas of classical utopia and critical utopia; understanding how laughter is an integral part of 18th-century utopian storytelling.

The 19th century marks the transition from utopian to dystopian stories; Americans who attempt to build real-world utopias; studying the work of two authors who react to this attempt; how optimistic utopian thinking is integral to the American Dream.

Exploring Victorian anxieties about technology and the vanishing frontier; analyzing these fears in Samuel Butler's "Erewhon", which utilizes utopian conventions and satire to critique various issues and humanity's relationship to machines.

Whether utopian literature can have a real-world impact; the significance of "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy; the ways Bellamy's socialist vision of the future influences the social activists of Gilded Age America; the idea of euchronia.