What is Utopia

A. The dictionary definition is an imaginary and indefinitely remote place or a place of idealist perfection, especially in laws, government and social conditions. By extension, it has also come to be used to describe an impractical scheme for social improvement.

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Q. Where does it come from

A. The word was coined by Sir Thomas More. Libellus de optimo republicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (Concerning the highest state of the republic and the new island Utopia) was published in two volumes in 1516. The name was compounded by More from the Greek words ou (not) and topos (place), meaning 'no place' or 'nowhere', thus 'an imaginary state'.

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Q. What was it about

A. In Utopia, More described a non-religious and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies were entirely governed by reason. As a satire on the state of 16th-century Europe, the order and dignity of the island of Utopia was in stark contrast to a Christian Europe divided by religious disharmony, self-interest and greed.

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Through the mouthpiece of the character Raphael Hythloday, a mysterious traveller, More put forward the argument that communism is the only cure against egotism in private and public life. In the dialogue he speaks in favour of mitigation of evil, rather than cure, saying that human nature is, essentially fallible, therefore, by its nature open to temptation, so giving in to temptation is forgivable.

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However, there are many theories as to what parts of the two books are seriously intended and which are mere allegory. It remains, however, one of the great Humanist works, and its philosophical influence is still felt today.

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Q. What other literary utopian visions have there been

A. There have been many. The first one to be written down was Plato's Republic (mid 4th century BC), and it has been an enormous influence on later descriptions of idealistic societies, including More's. Other utopias that were similar to More's in its Humanist themes were I mondi (1552) by Antonio Francesco Doni and La citt� felice (1553) by Francesco Patrizi.

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Christian thinking has produced a number of such works, and Puritanism in particular produced many literary utopias, both religious and secular, notably, The Law of Freedom (1652), in which Gerrard Winstanley advocated the principles of the Diggers. Many utopias are satires that ridicule the conditions of the age, rather than offer practical solutions for them. Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift is one of these. The Story of Utopias (1922) by Lewis Mumford is an excellent survey of works on the subject.

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Q. And Anti-Utopia

A. Anti-Utopia, or dystopia, are the opposite of Utopia. So, a work describing an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives is dystopian. A number of works of this nature were written during the 20th century, when the possibility of over-planned, totalitarian societies became all too real, particularly in Nazi Germany and the Stalinist and Maoist states. Most famous among these anti-Utopian novels are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell (1949).

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Q. And Nutopia

A. The Nutopian National Anthem appeared on the album Mind Games by John Lennon. It consisted of a few seconds silence.

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By Simon Smith

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