Dystopia Now: The Uses of Disenchantment

Utopian literature has always embodied a criticism of current conditions and the possibility of something better. While early dystopias like Brave New World cast doubt on this agenda, later forms like the “critical utopia” of the 1960s and 70s and the “critical dystopia” of the 80s and after attempted to redeem utopian thought. In recent decades, however, dystopian fiction not only has returned to the stance that social improvement may be out of reach but even suggests that we are already living in dystopian situations. This appears to be the message of late-and post-Soviet Russian fictions, the Parable novels of Octavia Butler, and The Water Knife of Paolo Bacigalupi.