Paper short abstract:

This paper examines dystopian as opposed to utopian narratives, reflecting the dominance of dystopian narratives in contemporary society and its cultural artefacts.

Paper long abstract:

Influential utopic visions confronted prevailing social, economic, political and religious realities all throughout the 20th century (Mumford). Although these utopias were often considered naive in their demands they still represented a possibility of imagining different and better worlds allowing various social groups an opportunity to transcend their social and cultural limitations and endure hopelessness of their everyday life. The Spirit of Utopia provided a glimmer of hope in the guise of an opportunity of expressing resistance towards unsatisfactory social conditions (Bloch). However, the omnipresent rationalisation and prevailing utilitarianism shifted the 20th and 21st century towards dystopian narratives as an antithesis to great utopian narratives of the past centuries. These dystopian narratives omit the principal of hope, negate the possibility of positive social change and develop various dark scenarios for the upcoming future. These narratives are reflected in the recent uptick in dystopian films which seems even more urgent and more extreme than it has in the past. Although dreamlike at first glance utopias are realistically based, they provide a not merely ideological but also practical outlet for thorough societal changes. Societies that are incapable of creating their own utopias are headed towards decline and sclerosis (Cioran). This paper examines the following questions: Why have dystopian narratives in recent decades prevailed over utopian narratives? Do we as a society need to re-find our utopias? What is the relation between the concepts of utopia and dystopia and how does our understanding of these concepts influence our capacity for social change?