A Life Ought To Be:Study Of Western Utopian Literature And Its Theory

“Utopia” is an important motif in western literature,aesthetic,philosophy and others,which can be traced back to Plato's Republic.It was originally born as the name of a literary work Utopia,written by Sir Thomas More,the founder of Utopian socialism,who was a famous British scholar in the 16 th century.Utopia is not only a kind of ultimate perfect social planning,but also the ideal pursuit of perfect humanity and happiness in life.Hence,it is of great theoretical value and practical significance to inquire systematically and deeply into Utopian literature so as to have an overall and accurate grasp of western literary and cultural thoughts,and reflect on the centralization nihilism of Utopian impulse itself.Starting from the basic problems of Utopia theory,the paper carries out in-depth study with the classic Utopian literature and its theoretical works as the object,combining the latest research results in China and abroad in this field.Main works under study and analysis include those in the Pre-Utopian period,those in the early beginning period of modern Utopia under the context of Renaissance,those with a deep imprint of socialist labor movement practice and Marxism against the setting of the Industrial Revolution,those reflecting on the drawbacks of Utopianism in the 1900 s and those after the turning of Utopian community that highlight the distinct post-modern features.The paper is divided into six chapters.Introduction mainly discusses the content,direction and innovation of this study and introduces the significance and purpose of the study,as well as the problems and dilemmas confronted by Utopian literary studies currently.It illuminates the scope of Utopian literature,lists representative literary works,clarifies the course of the development of Utopian literature and research an quotes the views of scholars like Mumford,Jameson,Levitas and others.The domestic and foreign monographs and papers on the development and theory of Utopian context are summarized.The current situation of Utopian literature research is evaluated and the research methods adopted are also introduced in this chapter.The first chapter is Construction and Classicization of Utopian Literature.It mainly discusses the shift of objects in Utopian literature from the ideal polis focused in ancient Greek works to ideal human being focused in modern works.It makes an in-depth analysis of the sprout of Utopian thought,makes a comparative study among modern Utopian literary works,including Utopia,Christchurch,The City of the Sun,New Atlantis and others,and illustrates the canonization process of Utopian literature.This chapter also expounds the construction of political dimension of Utopian literary aesthetic system.The second chapter is The Traditional Image Creation of Utopian Literature and the Generation of its Literary Significance.It mainly probes into the new literary themes such as ecological Utopia,technological Utopia and aesthetic Utopia and analyzes the aesthetic images and its significance produced in utopian literature during the Industrial Revolution.It conducts a comparative analysis between Marxist scientific socialism and utopian socialism and reveals the unique views and attitudes in utopian novels during the special historical period towards labor alienation,industrialization,commercialization,naturalism and so on.The third chapter is Updating of the Theme in Dystopian Literary Criticism and Its Cultural Significance.It focuses on a discussion of dystopian literature which is regarded as a genre of modernist Utopian literature and reviews the new literary theme of dystopia.It explores the origin of new literary criticism themes such as totalitarianism,instrumental rationality,feminism,spatial issue and the origin of Utopian literature and expounds the aspects of Utopian literature like the historical context,image metaphor,narrative space,cultural logic and others.The fourth chapter is The Disintegration and Reconstruction of Postmodern Utopian Literature from the Perspective of Community Theory.It mainly discusses the transformation of traditional Utopian model in post-modern society and analyzes its social and historical background and reason.It summarizes the formation of the new aesthetic community and the construction of the Retrotopian model in science fiction.It also introduces the differences between the new and the traditional Utopian literature and summarizes the characteristics of the new Utopian model.The fifth chapter is Reflections on the Cultural Situation and Destiny of Utopia.This chapter demonstrates the homogeneity of dystopian literature and utopian literature and holds that dystopian literature still continues Utopian thought and Utopian impulsion.It explores the crisis of Utopian community in post-modern theories and points out the way out for Utopian literature in the new era.