The Utopian Dialectics In Ursula K.Le Guin's The Dispossessed

Ursula K.Le Guin is a prominent contemporary American writer.The Dispossessed is one piece of her important science fiction.The novel presents two opposite planets--Anarres and Urras,and reveals virtues and flaws of both worlds with cyclical plot and alternating narrative.As its subtitle of "An Ambiguous Utopia"indicates,the novel is permeated with the writer's dialectical utopian thinking.This thesis aims at analyzing utopian dialectics of the two planets from the aspects of ideology,politics,economy and society,and then analyzing representations of the thought from the aspects of the plot,narrative and images.Thus,Le Guin creates a new utopia that is different from the traditional one.It is a more real and ambiguous world which could be achieved through efforts of humanity.In this sense,Le Guin's utopia is a criticism and subversion of the traditional utopia.This thesis consists of five chapters in total:Chapter One first states the research background of the thesis;then sums up previous researches on Le Guin and The Dispossessed in China and abroad,demonstrates the inadequacy and one-sidedness of domestic research and points out the unique perspective of this study;finally,it presents the thesis,structure and significance of the study.Chapter Two is the theoretical basis of the whole thesis.Section One introduces utopia and expounds Le Guin's utopian thought that is different from the traditional one;Section Two reviews the development of dialectics and explores Le Guin's dialectical thought and its sources;Section Three illustrates the utopian dialectics manifested in many science fiction works of Le Guin's.Chapter Three focuses on the content of the novel.It elaborates the utopian dialectics in The Dispossessed in a comparative way.The chapter is composed of four sections.Section One analyzes two planets in general from the aspect of ideology.The other three sections compare the two planets and show both merits and demeritsof the two worlds respectively in the aspects of politics,economy and society,suggesting a dialectical relationship between the two planets.Chapter Four concerns the representations of the utopian dialectics in the novel.It first points out the cyclical feature of the plot;then interprets the alternatingcharacteristic of the narrative;and at last explores the dialectics embodied in the twometaphorical images--"walls",which contains both the visible and invisible types,and;"circle of life",which expresses a unifying vision of harmonious relationship betweenthe two planets.Chapter Five summarizes Le Guin's utopian dialectics in the novel.On the onehand,Le Guin approves of freedom and democracy of Anarres,but disapproves thatthe society with scarcity of materials and backwardness of technology is the ultimateaim of human race;on the other hand,she affirms affluence and advancement ofUrras,but denies that the society with an inclination to despotism and dictatorship isthe ideal place of human beings.The journey of the protagonist Shevek in the novel isa dialectical utopian pilgrimage from the positive to the negative and from thenegative to the positive.