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Abstract
This thesis is a study in Utopia as a literary genre, attempting to show
that there is a distinct intellectual, literary tradition linking the Utopian and anti-utopian novels and that this strand is in its turn embedded in a larger tradition of social, cultural thought. The thesis comprises three chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter is a journey through Utopia undertaken to survey the history of Utopia and anti-utopia, critically assessing the most significant Utopian and anti-utopian writings and examining the distinctive features of Utopian and dystopian fiction. The second chapter explores Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) and Erewhon Revisited (1901), demonstrating how they are satirical Utopias in which English thoughts and ways of life are subjected to the most brilliant play of irony, paradox and satire as well as to the characteristically Butlerian fantasy of inverted logic. The third chapter examines Huxley’s bad Utopia, Brave New World (1932) and his good Utopia, Island (1962) which betray his faith in the potentialities of man and his belief that any amelioration of society has to begin with the individual who has within him an untapped reservoir of goodness, intelligence and compassion. The conclusion pinpoints the similarities and differences in the literary visions of both Butler and Huxley and highlights the remarkable resilience Utopia has shown and will always show in the face of its antithesis, dystopia.