Abstract
Recent criticism of utopian literature has tended to regard the utopian novel exclusively as langue removed from its specific historical and social frame reference. Seen purely as a closed system and static image of perfection, it is then usually denounced as a blueprint for totalitarian society. In contrast, this essay includes the utopian novel in a pragmatic theory of fiction. In its double function as “substitute and preparation for action,” fiction (whether utopian or other) cannot be separated from its communicative context. As subjective response to social change it registers the costs of that change; and by converting what is lost into images of ideal society the utopian novel makes it again available for collective action. The essay analyzes ideological structure and pragmatic dimension of utopian novels of the late 19th century in America, especially those of Bellamy, Donnelly and Howells. It then tries to link them to a process of social transformation as well as to changing concepts of fiction and reality.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Reference
Zit. nach Sylvia Bowman, The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy (New York, 1958), S. 113.
H. D. Lloyd, Wealth Against Commonwealth (New York, 1894), S. 534.
P. U. Hohendahl, “Zum Erzählproblem des utopischen Romans im 18. Jh.,” Gestaltungsgeschichte und Gesellschaftsgeschichte, H. Kreuzer, Hg. (Stuttgart, 1969), S. 79–114.
Siehe hierzu K. Roemer, “Utopia made Practical: Compulsive Realism,” American Literary Realism, 4 (1971), 273–275.
Dazu V. L. Parrington, Jr., American Dreams (Providence, 1947)
R. L. Shurter, The American Utopian Novel, 1865–1900 (AMS Print: New York, 1973)
George B. Thomas, “Blueprints for Tomorrow: American Novels of Future Change, 1869–1900,” Diss. Harvard, 1972
K. M. Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity (Kent State Univ. Press, 1976).
Siehe M. Hansen/M. Christadler, “David Wark Griffiths Intolerance (1916): Zum Verhältnis von Film und Geschichte in der Progressive Era,” Amerikastudien, 21/1 (1976), 7–37.
Siehe John L. Thomas, “Utopia for an Urban Age”, Perspectives in American History, VI (1972), 135–165
sowie Samuel Haber, Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920 (Chicago, 1964).
John B. Walker, “The World’s Greatest Revolution,” The Cosmopolitan (1901).
Siehe Peter J. Schmitt, Back to Nature: The Arcadian Myth in Urban America, 1900–1930 (New York, 1969).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1977 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ickstadt, H. (1977). “Fiction shows Fact the Future”: Amerikanische Utopien des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. In: Amerikastudien / American Studies. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-99996-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-99996-2_7
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart
Print ISBN: 978-3-476-99997-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-476-99996-2
eBook Packages: J.B. Metzler Humanities (German Language)