A Perfect World or an Oppressive World:

A Critical Study of Utopia and Dystopia as Subgenres of Science

Fiction

Ashraf Abdelbaky
Assistant Lecturer in English Department- Faculty of Arts- Minia
University- Egypt

&
Honorary Staff in School of Humanities and Social Sciences-
Faculty of Education and Arts
University of Newcastle- Australia
ashraf.abdelbaky@mu.edu.eg
Synopsis
In this article, I investigate the concept of utopia and dystopia in literature since the time of
Plato and Thomas More and how it became a significant subgenre of science fiction. I present
the kinds of utopia and its fundamental purposes as well as the different explanations for the
term utopia and dystopia by numerous critics. I stress the function of science fiction as a literary
tool to depict the grim picture and the weaknesses of current societies, dystopias, and to provide
a warning for the future of these societies by presenting alternative peaceful societies; utopias.
Therefore, I seek to investigate how utopian writings play a central role in uncovering the
shortcomings of societies and presenting a formative criticism towards them. I also discuss
how utopia and dystopia give women the chance to present their feminist demands using
science fiction.

Key Words: Utopia, Dystopia, Science fiction, Feminism.

Utopia is a name given to an imaginary land where everything is supposed to be ideal

and perfect. The word ‘utopia’—which literally means ‘no place’—has become a synonym of
idealism. “The combination of the Greek ou (‘not’) and topos (‘place’) gives the literary
meaning of (‘no place’). By adding the Latin syllable eu (‘good’ or ‘well’) and then (-ia) suffix,
the meaning becomes ‘good place’”(Sisk 3). Thus, utopia means ‘no place’ or ‘good place.’

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Also, dystopia means ‘bad place’ or ‘anti-utopia.’ In Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,
utopia is defined as “1: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place, 2: a place of ideal perfection
especially in laws, government and social conditions, and 3: an impractical scheme for social
improvement” (1302). In the same dictionary, dystopia is defined as “an imaginary place where
people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (361).

However, the concept of utopia cannot be fully examined without considering the
concept of dystopia as each defines the other due to their various conceptual intersections. Both
are closely related to each other, one with optimistic future and the other with pessimistic one.
Anti- utopia is formed by utopia; the anti-utopia is considered a copy of utopia. In A Glossary
of Literary Terms (1988), M. H Abrams states that the term ‘utopia’ has come “to signify the
class of fiction which represents an ideal political state and a way of life” (177). He also adds
that the term ‘dystopia’ (bad place) has recently come to be applied to ‘ works of fiction which
represent a very unpleasant imaginary world in which certain ominous tendencies of our present
social, political and technological order are projected in some future culmination’ (178).

Critics present different explanations for the term Utopia. Tatiana Teslenko has
explained that “over the past two decades, most commentators have arrived at the conclusion
that ‘Utopia’ resists definition because of the plurality of the phenomena involved in the
concept” (1-2). In his famous book The Story of Utopia, Lewis Mumford also considers the
term as representing the “ultimate in human folly for human hope-vain dreams of perfection in
a never-never land or rational efforts to remark man’s environment, his institutions and even
his own erring nature, so as to enrich the possibilities of the common life” (7).

In her online article, “Conscious Dreaming: Feminist Utopian Narrative as Mentor”,

Tracie Welser quotes The American Heritage College Dictionary definition of utopia as “an
ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects”. She describes
utopian novels as a perfect place which is possible or desirable and preferable to the current
social configuration. Some of these social, political, and moral aspects include the goal of
complete equality of all citizens, the elimination of illness, crime, and war, and the availability
of satisfying livelihood.

Plato’s The Republic is considered the earliest example of utopian literary works as it
represents the canon of utopian literature. Therefore, Plato is considered the founder of this
ideal world. In The Republic, Plato depicts an ideal society and presents a detailed description

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of its sociopolitical system. Plato’s The Republic offers a democratic utopia. There is no plot
in The Republic like traditional novels; it has only themes, characters, and conflict. Socrates is
the main character who plays the role of the narrator. In his book

Utopianism, Krishan Kumar explains that this book is “not an exemplification of those
principles in actions, in concrete institutions and ways of life” (39). There are no actions in the
events of the novel; there are only thoughts and dynamic arguments.

This utopian model was later developed by Thomas More (1478–1535) who also
presented a similar society in his Latin book Utopia (1516) that contains the best of everything
and guarantees equality and peace for all its citizens to the extent that mercenaries are always
hired to defend the utopia instead of the good citizens who are definitely ready to defend their
perfect society. Margret Atwood mentions in her introduction to Brave New World in 2007,
that “Sir Thomas More in his own sixteenth-century Utopia, may have been punning: utopia is
the good place that doesn’t exist” (x). Then she adds that:

Utopia and dystopias from Plato’s Republic on have had to cover the same basic
ground that real societies do. All must answer the same questions: Where do
people live, what do they eat, what do they wear, what do they do about sex and
child-rearing? Who has the power, who does that work, how do citizens relate to
nature, and how does economy function? (xi)

The book Utopia depicts an ideal place which was used ever since to define perfect
societies wanted by people and promised by politicians. More’s utopia is considered a satire on
the contemporary society of England at his time and his style has “a profound sense of political
realities” (Hexter 64). The island of Utopia exists only in More’s imagination. He did not state
its location or even its borders. The reader only knows that it is two hundred miles wide, with
an entrance into its great bay. The island has fifty-four cities; the main economic source of this
land is agriculture. They all know about art” (Berneri 95). Utopian works always describe an
imaginary world that has its system of sociopolitical justice. As Krishan Kumar explains in his
book Utopianism “It is here if not now…. Utopia may be nowhere but historically and
conceptually it cannot be just anywhere” (3). Utopia is also used to describe similar fictional
and unrealistic societies seen in literary works but never in reality.

More’s Utopia that came two thousand years later after Plato’s The Republic. More
presents this work to give a desired image to contemporary England. It presents a utopian life

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for all citizens where men and women work together six hours daily farming and learning a
craft at the same time. The highly educated class elects the leaders of that society.

In that society, war, suffering, diseases are unheard of.

It is truly significant that those two important works of Plato and More represent the
model for most of the utopian writings. They present the elements of the dictatorship of the
government, a remote setting, and definite time in the future. They introduce a pattern that
remained the same until the late 18th century.

Since Sir Thomas More presented Utopia, many writers have produced many works
that developed the utopian genre. The utopian writings come with four unique features. First,
the narrative includes dramatic developments that the readers would not expect. Second, the
narrative usually presents a ruling class within the utopian society. Third, the narrative
introduces norms and values congruent to the high standards of utopian societies. Fourth, the
narrative typically describes a disconnected place that is significantly different than other
places.

Since the time of Plato and Thomas More, the main purpose of utopian works was to
criticize social problems and expose weaknesses in the political and social systems. Utopia
usually challenges the reality and the present condition of society. Utopianism is concerned
with the loss of dignity, humanity, and spirit in society. For ages, there are many different
utopian novels that call for social and political equality. As George Kateb concludes, “The idea
of utopia is timeless. That is to say, it does not develop historically; the earliest utopias are no
less advanced than the latest” (29). Examples can be seen in Samuel Johnson’s The History of
Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1825) and Butler’s Erewhon (1872).

Alexandra Aldridge comments that the utopian fiction can be “divided into five basic
types: the Earthy Paradise, the Religious Utopia, the Golden Age, the Folk Utopia and the

Planned Society” (3). Each kind of Utopia has been a reaction to certain circumstances that
necessitated its emergence. Economic utopias, for instance, have been a reaction to certain
harsh economic conditions and financial difficulties. Development of capitalism and
commercialism in the early years of the nineteenth century has given birth to utopian
socioeconomic concepts that represented a socioeconomic dream of welfare and even
distribution of wealth. Such concepts were soon embraced and vastly supported by all dreamers

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of a utopian life who were later grouped in larger socialist movements calling for the citizens’
right to do jobs they love and to have enough time for their cultural and artistic hobbies.

In a similar vein, political utopias preach for a government that continually strives for
the best of its people. Historically, some political systems attempted to achieve perfection and
eliminate cultural and racial differences among their citizens through ‘polyculturalism’ and
integrity. They tried to reach a political system where different communities are equally
involved in the utopian formula without losing their respective characteristics and unique
features.

Religious utopias have been among the common forms of utopia because both the
utopian project and religion aim at eliminating all evils, sufferings and misery from society.
However, reaching a religious utopia is not practically easy because it requires that every
citizen follows the exact ideal form of religious doctrine. Only then, all evils and shortcomings
of society would disappear giving birth to the utopian society. This form of utopia is based
upon some basic religious concepts such as reward and punishment. An illustrative example of
religious utopia is Paradise of Aden, a well-known concept in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism
that promises a paradise for good people and an everlasting hell for bad people. Also, both
utopia and religious tradition are intertwined because their shared destination as both offer
‘gardens of delight’, free of all worries, diseases, poverty, or wars.

Other examples of religious utopias are the Buddhist concepts of ‘Nirvana’ and the Hindu
concept of Moksha. Both are supposed to establish perfect societies on common religious
principles. Religious utopias always value the individual and collective responsibility of all
citizens, and their promised ‘heavens’ are not attainable except by sincere effort and
commitment.

Scientific utopias present a high-tech world with a highly advanced technological

model that can support a utopian life. In a scientific utopia, technological advancement aims at
perfecting the utopians’ lives by eliminating anything that is not up to the utopian standards.
Science and technology fight diseases, pain and death. Citizens of technological utopia are
provided with everything they could need. In addition, basic human tasks such as eating,
growing, sleeping and reproduction are always assisted which makes them relatively different
than other forms of utopia.

Utopian works focus on reflecting the social issues of any society. In this regard,

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Moses Finley concludes, “Utopian ideas and fantasies, like all ideas and fantasies, grow out of
society to which they are a response” (5). In her book Journey through Utopia (1971), Marie
Louise Berneri states a related idea that Utopias are considered plans of societies functioning
mechanically, dead structures conceived by economists, politicians, and moralists; according
to her, such an exclusionary focus undermined Utopia’s potential to reflect what Berneri calls
“the living dreams of poets” (3–4).
On the other hand, Lyman Tower Sargent remarks that, though all fiction describes a
‘no place,’ Utopian fiction generally presents a good or bad ‘no place’. He stresses that since
the time of Thomas More, many commentators attempted to define Utopia; however, until the
present, this phenomenon has resisted static definitions. Meanwhile, our understanding of
Utopia has been systematically problematized (30).

According to Darko Suvin, a leading SF critic, the definition of utopia is “the verbal
construction of a particular quasi-human community where sociopolitical institutions, norms,
and individual relationships are organized according to a perfect principle than in the author’s
community, this construction being based on estrangement arising out of an alternative
historical hypothesis” (49). While Ruth Levitas conceives utopia, in The Concept of Utopia, as
the expression of a desire for different (and better) ways of being human with its emphasis on
human desire (151). Her definition of utopia responds to that of a broader phenomenon—
Utopianism. However, Levitas is not directly concerned with literary utopias; her definition
reinforces the argument that Utopian literature should be treated as a subset of a broader
phenomenon (vii-xi).

The utopian works always have titles which give the names a description of a utopian
or a dystopian time or place. Also, it indicates that the work is a depiction of the social and the
political systems in a utopian or dystopian place. Typically, the two examined novels Huxley’s
Brave New World and Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time include some words that reflect
the narrative. Another example could be Well’s A Modern Utopia (1905) and Orwell’s novel
Nineteen Eighty Four (1949),

In contrast to the utopian narrative is the dystopia. Rather than propose a hopeful
reconfiguration of society which eradicates collective ills, the dystopia envisages the worst
possible future in which utopian dreaming has been subverted by repressive forces (Welser). It
is worth mentioning that utopia has failed in spreading the spiritual values and keeping the old

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family system. Saman quotes Winifred Holtby’s description of utopia in the modern age as
follows:

We live in a puzzle age… The old certainties which made the 19 the and early 20
the centuries so comfortable hold us no longer: conventional Christianities, the
moral of bourgeois respectability, belief in democracy, progress, individualism
and the nation, the righteousness of family life, the in fabillility of reason and the
inevitable benevolence of science, have all been questioned, and the questioning
disturbs even those who refuse to renounce their ancient creeds. (6)

Therefore, utopia falls and dystopia rises. The collapse of utopia and the rise of dystopia is the
result of many different reasons that stand against Utopia. The two world wars and the

Soviet Union’s shattering have been traumatic. In his book Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern
Times (1987), Krishan Kumar stresses this point wondering: “How could Utopia stand up in
the face of Nazism, Stalinism, genocide, mass unemployment?” (381)

During the 20th century, the genre appeared in a new form, dystopian or AntiUtopian,
for its depiction of an un-ideal society. In his book From Utopia to Nightmare (1962), Chad
Walsh wonders about the reasons behind the fall of utopian vision and the appearance of the
utopian vision. He later mentions two reasons: “One is that utopia has failed. The other is that
Utopia has succeeded. Utopia has failed and succeeded outside the bounds of the fictional page”
(117). Utopia succeeded in creating new scientific developments, eliminating slavery,
introducing women’s rights. Consequently, it falls after achieving its goals and becoming a
fact.

One cannot understand the life of a utopian society without a previous background of a
dystopia. Likewise, one cannot make a warning of a dystopia without some experience of what
a utopia would look like. Both genres are equally effective in presenting society.

One of the characteristics of utopian and dystopian literature is that readers are supposed
to understand that the story is true and that a perfect or a terrible place does exist. On the other
hand, this feature is reversed in utopian or Anti-utopian literature, where the readers are
supposed to fear what is presented, knowing that violence is fictional and should be avoided
by making changes in the present and the current conditions. Edith Clowes states that utopian
fiction call for “a nihilistic attitude towards both the present and the future to abandon the
notion of a beneficial social imagination” (32).

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 Anti-utopia or dystopia follows the tradition of utopia technically, but it differs
thematically. Instead of happiness and prosperity, people live in despair and suffering. That is
why the term dystopia appears as a counterpart of utopia. As Aldridge sums up, dystopia is not
considered “utopia in reverse as it has often been called, but a singular generic category issuing
out of a 20th century shift of attitudes towards Utopia” (ix). Moylon also adds that the very
essence of the utopian works undermines the utopian impulse because it makes the horrified
reader satisfied with what ‘is’ and hopeful at least not to change it to the worse (9). Dystopia
can be defined as a society characterized by poverty, suffering, squalor, or oppression. In
addition, the Egyptian professor Angele Samaan calls dystopia, in her introduction to Brave
New World, as “a prophetic warning”. She regards it as “a product and symptom of the
ceaseless restlessness and uncertainty of the present and the quest for a better future typical of
a speedily changing world” (viii). Historically speaking, the term dystopia can be attributed to
MP John Stuart Mill who coined the word in 1868:

It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them utopians, they ought rather to be
called dystopian, or caco-topians, what is commonly called utopian is something
too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favor is too bad to be
practicable. (qtd. By Kumar, 1987, 447)

In fact, it is the new scientific development that led to the loss of morals, manners, and
the spread of individualism and selfishness in society. In his book Utopia and AntiUtopia in
Modern Times (1987), Kumar clarifies that the anti-utopia is formed by utopia, and feeds
parasitically on it…utopia is the original; anti-utopia is considered a copy only, as it was always
colored black. It is utopia that gives positive sides to which anti-utopia makes the negative
response. Anti-utopia draws its material from Utopia and reassembles it in a manner that denies
the affirmative of utopia (100)

Dystopias usually introduce the suffering and the problems of contemporary society
and function as a warning against some modern trends, often the threat of oppressive regimes
and their strict control over citizens. In this kind of literary work, the author presents utopian
elements that stand against achieving justice, freedom and happiness in society.

James M. Morris and Andrea L. Kross define the word “dystopia” in their book, The A to Z of
Utopianism saying:

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 The word “dystopia” (or “distopia”) is derived from the Greek dus (diseased,
faulty, difficult, unfavorable, or bad) + topos (place), meaning a bad or faulty
place. It is the opposite of “utopia” (or “eutopia”) from the Greek ou (no or not)
+ topos (place), meaning literally “no place” but commonly accepted as meaning
“a good place.” “Dystopia” is used in literature or common parlance to designate
or describe a would-be perfect society that is, in fact, a very bad,

unfavorable, or faulty place or society. “Dystopian” (or

Dystopia/Dystopian/Dystopianism. (83)
Dystopia is also defined in many science fiction novels as a society that is nightmarish
or inhuman in character as a result of political oppression and technological overload and
ecological collapse. Writers create dystopias as a description of a black frighten world full of
social and political warnings. Kateb asserts that “One consequence of this conception is the
Anti-utopian novel which uses the familiar utopian convention to express a mode of dead and
despair occasioned by the result of the implication of utopian dreams” (81).

Erika Gottlieb explains that dystopian fiction regards “totalitarian dictatorship as its
prototype that puts its whole population continuously on trial, a society that finds its essence in
concentration camps, that is, in disfranchising and enslaving entire classes of its citizens….
glorifying and justifying violence…” (41). Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) is regarded as a
dystopia because it presents a group of sick people who were treated as criminals and at the
same time they were taking care of thieves in hospitals. Another famous example is George
Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four (1949), which is a utopian novel about a totalitarian
society, systemizing its population through propaganda rather than drugs.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) describes a future in North America governed
by strict religious rules. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) is also often considered as
a dystopia because of the strict government of society, the absence of morals, and the spread
of drugs. Sharon Stevenson explains:

In a Dystopia the author must create a fantasy society or state of the future or the
past where the characters experience palpable suffering which the readers fear are
not the result of individual circumstances, but which could happen to them, given
the right social conditions. (139)

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 The main idea of the utopia and dystopia is to make people think about the world in which
they live and this is what the author of utopian and dystopian novel tries to convey.

As stated in George Kateb’s Utopia:

The first job of the utopian writer is to take stock of the world in which he is born
to assess its total functioning. Into this assessment enters, necessarily, the entire
past of the human species, but that past determines his counter world only to
extend that effectively survives in present practice. (34-35)

Many utopias can be seen as dystopias regarding their treatment of social issues like justice,
freedom and happiness. Stephen Spenser states that everything that is potentially in us has a
positive and negative aspect. There has never been an age in which communities and
individuals had a greater possibility of developing towards greater happiness and freedom. She
adds that we feel a tomorrow passing upon us which may lead to the end of individuality and
perhaps also of civilization. (125)
Utopias and dystopias have the same function which is depicting a society which has
some principles and ideologies that represent power and freedom. This means that utopia or
dystopia cannot be identified without reference to the viewer’s point of view, and that the
apparent differences between the two are associated with the role of individuals in society.

Thus, one person’s utopia is another person’s dystopia since the rules within society are
primarily the same for both persons. They differ mostly in the way of keeping stability, giving
happiness, and removing suffering. This stresses the fact that both utopias and dystopias have
the same function in different societies. What separates the protagonist from the surrounding
society is a sense of individuality that pushes him to view life in a different way. His disbelief
in the government which controls his life forces him to stand against the norms of society and
call for freedom in that utopian society. Thus, the dystopia appears when society rejects the
individuality of every citizen and links to those of the majority.

Carl Freedman, in Critical Theory and Science Fiction, asserts: “The sciencefictional
world is not only one different in time or place from our own, but one whose chief interest is
precisely the difference that such difference makes” (xvi). This study discusses the connection
between utopia and science fiction. Both genres of utopia and science fiction are related
together. George Kateb states: “science cannot carry on without utopia nor utopia without
science, but to wed utopia with science takes a degree of skill not available to most writers of

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utopian fiction, H.G. Wells and, possibly, Edward Bellamy being the only exceptions that came
to mind” (33).

Utopia appears entirely connected with science fiction in describing the way of life and
how people live in their society. As Claire P Curtis states: “The fiction of Science fiction is
primarily a fiction concerning how we get from one point to another. The description of a place,
the prescription for how to live, is the contextually rich thought experiment that we need in
order to think about where and who we want to be” (161).

In her online article “Women on the Edge of Time: Science fiction and the Feminist
Movement”, Vida J. Maralani points out:
Science Fiction, as a literary genre, is commonly accepted as a male realm.
Oftentimes, the authors are men; the heroes are men; and women, when they
appear, are sexual and/or decorative creatures that further glorify men.
However, in the late sixties and early seventies, a generation of women writers
entered the genre and changed the essence of what ‘Science Fiction’
represented. Their voices infused Science fiction with feminist ideas, theories
and critical social commentaries about issues of gender, race, class, and the
survival of species.

Then she adds that science fiction gives women a chance in areas of style and content that were
not available in the other types of fiction. Therefore, women make a revolution in the genre of
science fiction presenting many significant literary works. In her article

“Ecofeminist Perspectives on Technology in the Science fiction of Marge Piercy”, Anna

Martinson comments: “The genre of Science fiction exhibits a fascination with technology, and
feminist Science fiction often involves careful consideration of the intersections between
gender and technology”(51).Then she adds that feminist Science fiction often attempts to
provide an extended and vivid exploration of physical, emotional, economic, and cultural
impacts of new technologies without necessarily remaining faithful to any particular
philosophical commitment.

Later on, the 20th century has witnessed great developments that urged writers to resort
to science fiction to reflect their ideas. According to Tom Moylon, utopian works that appeared
in the west revived during the late 19th centuries and the beginning of the twentieth as a result
of the different social movements that were forging a “common opposition to the fast

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developing power of industrial capitalism and imperialism” (7). Science fiction turned to be
the best available genre for describing social issues in the form of utopia and dystopia.
Therefore, both utopia and dystopia are frequently functioned in science fiction works that
tackle various problems.

Science fiction is more concerned with character, society, or other speculative ideas and
themes that are not centrally connected to scientific speculations. Freedman asserts: “The
science-fictional world is not only one different in time or place from our own, but one whose
chief interest is precisely the difference that such difference makes” (p. xvi). Science fiction
novels always present questions and try to answer them in order to create changes in our life in
the future.

Science fiction as a genre was first introduced in the late 1890s and 1900s with the
writings of some great authors like H.G. Wells whose novel The Time Machine (1895) is
regarded as the most famous novel in that period in which Wells presents a world in the future
inhabited by primitive slaves who have no civilization. Wells adds new features to the
dystopian novels of the 20th century. He is considered the model for the great writers of utopian
and dystopian literature in the 20th century such as E. M Forster, George Orwell, Yevgeny
Zamyatin, and Aldous Huxley. Those writers follow the Wellsian model and present great
literary works. Also, H.G. Wells’s Modern Utopia (1905) is regarded as the most important
scientific utopia. Huxley writes in one of his letters that Brave New World is

“a novel about the horrible future of the Wellsian Utopia and a revolt against it” (Huxley 281).
The famous British writer George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four (1949) is also considered
among the famous novels in the genre of science fiction.

There are different subgenres of science fiction. Hard science fiction is a sub-genre that
means fiction which is based on hard sciences (e.g. physics, astronomy, or chemistry). One
may need a scientific background to understand what is going on through some events. Soft
science fiction is simply the opposite of hard science fiction which means that it. The term first
appeared in the late 1960s and refers to science fiction which is based on social sciences, like
psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, and so on.

From the many definitions of science fiction novels, many characteristics of this literary
genre can be figured out. A science fiction novel is often based on scientific concepts or new
scientific or technological principles that are different from the conventional novel. It may

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make predictions about life in the future, or alternative times. It often deals with aliens, life on
other worlds or outer space, or unknown civilizations. Science fiction novels often comment
on important issues in contemporary societies such as political or social systems that are
different from those of the known present or the past. A work of science fiction has, at least,
one or two of these characteristics. However, there is lots of diversity and variety within this
genre.

Although the first science fiction novel, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1818), was
written by a woman, the genre of science fiction has been totally dominated by male writers.
The science fiction genre prior to 1960s was completely dominated by male authors. Their
heroes were mainly men trying to avoid their assigned responsibilities. Joanna Russ states that
prior to the feminist utopias of the sixties and seventies women were considered by writers as
“the other.” She has explained the point saying:

…and the other does not have the kind of inner life or consciousness that you and
I have. In fact, the other has no mind at all…. No other ever has the motives that
you and I have; the other contains a mysterious essence, which causes it to behave
as it does; in fact ‘it’ is not a person at all, but a projected wish or fear. (83)

At that time, women were traditionally far from scientific and technological fields. Jules
Verne (1828-1905) and H.G. Wells (1866-1946), the pioneers of this genre, had no place for
women in their fantasies. Women in other writers’ fantasies were just stereotypes of the existing
society. The Science fiction genre gives women freedom regarding the style of writing as well as
content. Sarah Lefanu states in Feminism and Science fiction (1988) that Science Fiction: ‘breaks
down the traditional hierarchies between writers and readers, and challenges the conventional
authority of the single author’ (6). Therefore, women writers try to make the best use of Science
fiction as a useful tool for examining society’s conceptions and traditional norms of gender and
sexuality. Sarah Lefanu asserts that Science fiction gives freedom to writers more than any other
literary genre:

Unlike other forms of genre writing, such as detective stories and romance, which
demand the reinstatement of order and thus can be described as ‘closed’ texts;
Science fiction is by its nature interrogative and open. (100)

Women writers in the utopian literature of the 19th and early 20th century, at the time of first
wave Feminism, often wrote about gender and sexism. Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s

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Herland (1915) and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) belong to the first wave of feminism
because of calling for woman’s rights. During the 1920s, women writers such as Clare Winger
Harris (1891-1968) and Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1883-1848) produced science fiction works
based on female perceptions. After World War II, women writers entered science fiction and
achieved a radical change in this genre as they present new topics they could not discuss in
their real life. This is referred to by Jeanne Gomoll in Women of Other Worlds, who states:

For feminist churning a revolution in the midst of patriarchal institutions, Science

fiction offers the space to imagine what new institutions, relationships and
cultures might look like when women and men stand equal, with the same
opportunities to conduct their work and their relationships. (6)

Feminist science fiction novels depict a utopian society free from gender issues and
oppression. The writing of utopian fiction almost disappeared after World War II. As a reaction
to this terrible war, dystopias, like George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four (1948), began to
dominate the genre. The appearance of new utopian writings by American writers in the late
1960s and the 1970s achieved a great social uprising leading to a change in the traditions of the
genre creating a genre called feminist utopia.

The 1970s has witnessed a revival in the utopian literature that gives women an
opportunity to ask for their social change in their societies. Therefore, many women writers
present great literary utopian works that call for different issues related to women’s role in
society. Feminist science fiction writers use the genre of utopian literature as a literary tool to
present their ideas and issues. They started to write about gender, race, sex and social equality.
Most of these topics relate to feminism.

Tom Moylan argues that such writers attempted to create in their works what he
called ‘critical Utopias,’ retaining an ‘awareness of the limitations of the utopian
tradition, so that these texts reject Utopia as blueprint while preserving it as
dream.’ Such Utopias are able to function effectively as critiques of the status
quo, while maintaining a self-critical awareness that prevents them from
descending into empty utopian cliché (qtd. in Booker 339)

Teslenko that feminist utopian tradition flourished with the second wave of the feminist
movement of the late 1960 till early 1980s.This period witnessed a significant ideological
revolution that caused numerous political, social, and cultural changes. One of these changes

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was an explosion of feminist narratives that exposed the inferior positioning of women in
patriarchy and met their demand for envisioning a better social order. Indeed, during this
period, feminist writers produced works that reenergized many literary genres. In particular, in
their interventions into the utopian genre, feminists were moving toward an open-endedness
that sought to overcome the tendency toward monological stagnation4 that, as they argued, had
long haunted patriarchal Utopia. (7)

As M. Keith Booker (1994) points out, a significant lack of genuine attention to gender
issues in mainstream utopia suggests that gender prejudice is far more difficult to overcome
than other social conventions. Booker explains this resistance by the fact that sexism is one of
the most ingrained and invisible characteristics of Western socio-political reasoning. (33)

These feminist authors use utopian science fiction for analyzing contemporary gender
or sex roles and for advocating social change from feminist perspectives. Feminist utopia
appears as an important medium of communication for new ideas and values. Teslenko
indicates:

Feminist utopias of the 1970s expose patriarchal social order and offer such a new
conceptual space: they envision a different time/place that allows for ideological
change. It is quite a challenge to portray a vision of the future that can generate
change in the present. First, feminist Utopias must avoid fixing the act of social
dreaming by creating blueprints of utopian worlds because doing so removes the
transformative potential of the imagined future. Second, feminist Utopias must
describe a better world for women while working with the very tools of patriarchy
in the form of language. Consequently, they need to disrupt the genre setting
‘rules’ of mainstream utopia through the use of ambiguity, multiplicity, and
openness. (x)

Then Teslenko states also that’ feminist utopia describes ‘the good place which is no place’;
but as a genre, it is grounded in place and time: it reflects the feminist attempts to change their
inferior positioning in the socio-historic context of the 1970s (xi).

For most of these women writers, science fiction was a very convenient method for
discussing such taboo topics which were previously awkward and controversial, or only
confined to men. Consequently, utopia and dystopia give women a chance to explore freedom

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of women in an ideal world. In dealing with the issue of gender and sexuality, the researcher
will discuss all the related themes and concepts related to feminist utopian science fiction.

Feminist utopia was at its height from the late 1960s and went on during the 1970s and
the 1980s. Some women writers created single-sex societies where women are able to live
without men and carry out men’s roles creating genderless societies. Feminist utopian thinking
has, as feminist critic Anne K. Mellor noticed, forged a close link with the literary genre of
science fiction, “a genre which provides the opportunity to test various hypotheses concerning
societal organization and ethical codes” (244). Many influential feminist utopias were written
in the 1970s; the most known examples include Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness
(1969); Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975); Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time
(1976), and Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979).

I would like to conclude saying that utopia and dystopia are regarded as significant
subgenres of science fiction. The two concepts are considered a literary tool to explore the grim
picture and the shortcomings of current societies, dystopias, and to provide a warning for the
future of these societies by presenting alternative peaceful societies; utopias. Therefore utopian
writings play a central role in uncovering the weaknesses of societies and delivering a formative
criticism towards them. Utopia and dystopia also give women the chance to call for their
feminist issues using a science fiction atmosphere.

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