On The Artistic Features Of "Satirical Utopian Fiction" In Samuel Butler's Erewhon

"Utopia" is an unfailing theme in the history of Western thought and culture.The utopian ideology with a distant source gave birth to utopian literature when it entered literature domain.And since then on,utopian literature has become one of the most important branches in the development of Western literature.The turn of the centuries motivated the turn of utopian literature into dystopian literature,while satirical utopian literature in the transitional period has always been neglected.British writer Samuel Butler finished his science fiction Erewhon in 1872,which has also become a masterpiece of "satirical utopian literature" in a real sense.However,for a long time,neither the writer himself nor the novel has been obscured in the literary world.By means of textual analysis,the thesis attempts to dissect the use of satire so as to reveal the artistic features of the novel,especially as a satirical utopian novel.It is through drilling down into the satirical meaning in this novel that it aims to identify the reason why Erewhon is in the stage of "satirical utopian literature" and expand the impact of the researches on both Butler and his writings in China.The thesis is composed of a preface and five chapters.The preface gives a brief introduction to the author's life and status as well as the novel Erewhon itself,thus drawing forth the research question,then reviewing the current researches on them at home and abroad.The first chapter "Butler's satirical utopian fiction and the Western utopian literature" puts Erewhon into the Western utopian cultural tradition.The point is to trace back and clarify the development of Western utopian literature and seek the cause of satirical utopian literature.The second chapter pays attention to the implicit racism and the incomplete satire in Butler's novel.It tries to define satirical utopian literature and demonstrate its unique cultural connotation,and then interpret its great significance to the whole development of Western utopian literature and culture.The third chapter,based on the narration of "the Unborn" and"the Colleges of Unreason",analyzes the use of satire,exploring the truth of British families in the Victorian era,and revealing Butler's cynicism about "Erewhon" and British family ethics.The forth chapter "the Disappear of the Machines" introduces the main part of the novel named"the Book of the Machines".Through the comparison between the prohibition of machine in Erewhon and the extraordinary developments of science in Britain after the Industrial Revolution,it shows the conflicts between human beings and machines,and expresses a profound anxiety about technology.The fifth chapter focuses on the hypocrisy of the British religion in Victorian era.By drawing the parallels between the social realities and the "Musical Bank" in Butler's writing,it aims at revealing the truth that the ridiculous monetary system and the two sets of religious systems in Erewhon insinuates the crisis of the British's faith.In a word,in Erewhon,Butler conceives and creates a "satirical utopia"more inclined to dystopian literature,thus making this novel a milestone in the process from utopian literature toward dystopian literature.