Table of Contents

Preface Gregory Claeys; Brief chronology of key works of utopian literature and thought; Part I. History: 1. The concept of utopia Fátima Vieira; 2. Thomas More's Utopia: sources, legacy and interpretation J. C. Davis; 3. Utopianism after More: the Renaissance and Enlightenment Nicole Pohl; 4. Varieties of nineteenth-century utopias Kenneth M. Roemer; 5. The origins of dystopia: Wells, Huxley and Orwell Gregory Claeys; Part II. Literature: 6. Utopia, dystopia and science fiction Peter Fitting; 7. Utopia and Romance Patrick Parrinder; 8. Feminism and utopianism Alessa Johns; 9. Colonial and post-colonial utopias Lyman Tower Sargent; 10. 'Non-western' utopian traditions Jacqueline Dutton; 11. Ecology and utopia Brian Stableford; Further reading.

Promotional Information

Using a combination of historical and thematic approaches, this volume engages with the fascinating and complex genre of utopian literature.

About the Author

Gregory Claeys is Professor of the History of Political Thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has edited Utopias of the British Enlightenment (1994), Modern British Utopias. c.1700–1850 (8 volumes, 1997), Restoration and Augustan British Utopias (2000), Late Victorian Utopias (6 volumes, 2008) and other works. He has written several studies of aspects of the Owenite socialist movement, of the French revolution debate in Britain, and of Thomas Paine's thought. His most recent book is Imperial Sceptics: British Critics of Empire, 1850–1920 (Cambridge, 2010).