Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world. Both are commonly found in science fiction novels and stories. Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781 Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1802 A nightmare is a dream of particular intensity and with content that the sleeper finds disturbing. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... This article is in need of attention. ...

The word utopia was first used in this context by Thomas More in his work Utopia; literally it means "nowhere". In this work, More sets out a vision of an ideal society. Other examples include Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and B.F. Skinner's Walden Two. Gulliver's Travels may also be seen as a satirical utopia because it is actually a comment on the society the author lived in. The same goes for Erewhon by Samuel Butler. Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478–6 July 1535), posthumously known also as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, writer, and politician. ... See Utopia (disambiguation) for other meanings of this word Utopia, in its most common and general meaning, refers to a hypothetical perfect society. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels and A Tale of a Tub. ... Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a work of fiction by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 _ August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and author. ... Walden Two is a novel published in 1948 by B. F. Skinner, who intended it to describe a utopia. ... Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a work of fiction by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Erewhon is a novel by Samuel Butler published in 1872. ... Samuel Butler Samuel Butler (December 4, 1835 - June 18, 1902) was a British writer best known for his satire Erewhon. ...

Dystopias usually include elements of contemporary society and function as a warning against some modern trend. Often, the warning is against the threat of fascism in one form or another. Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ...

For examples of dystopias, see Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Ayn Rand's Anthem and William Gibson's cyberpunk novels. A dystopia (alternatively, cacotopia, kakotopia or anti-utopia) is the antithesis of a utopian society. ... Yevgeny Zamyatin Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (Евге́ний Ива́нович Замя́тин sometimes translated into English as Eugene Zamyatin) (February 1, 1884 - March 10, 1937) was a Russian author, most famous for his novel We, a story of dystopian future which influenced Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four... We (Мы, 1920) is a novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin. ... George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell was a British author. ... A centennial printing of Nineteen Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four (often 1984) is a political novel written by George Orwell. ... Animal Farm book cover Animal Farm is a satirical novel (which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm they live on and run it themselves, only to have it corrupted into... Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. ... Book cover of Aldous Huxleys Brave New World. ... Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( b. ... Fahrenheit 451 book cover Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is a dystopian fiction novel by Ray Bradbury that was originally published in the second issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. ... Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... The dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, opens with the line Spoiler warning: Unfortunately, this equality has been achieved by handicapping the most intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the lowest common denominator, a process central to the society which is overseen... Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Peggy Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a novelist, poet, literary critic, and a pioneer of Canadian womens writing. ... Cover of The Handmaids Tale The Handmaids Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. ... Neal Stephenson (b. ... Snow Crash cover shot, illustrated by Bruce Jensen. ... Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905–March 6, 1982; first name pronounced (IPA) (rhymes with mine)), born Alissa Alice Zinovievna Rosenbaum, was a popular and controversial American philosopher and novelist, best known for her philosophy of Objectivism and her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. ... Anthem (ISBN 0451191137), first published in 1938, is a science_fiction novella by Ayn Rand. ... William Gibson is generally credited with the invention of the Science Fiction genre known as cyberpunk, as well as coining the term cyberspace. ... Cyberpunk (a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk) is a sub-genre of science fiction which focuses on computers or information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown in social order. ...

Subgenres

A subgenre of this is ecotopian fiction, where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia was the first example of this, followed by Kim Stanley Robinson in his California trilogy. Robinson has also edited a collection of short ecotopian fiction, called Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias. Ecotopian fiction is a subgenre of Utopian fiction where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. ... Ernest Callenbach (born April 3, 1929) is an American writer. ... Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is the title of a seminal book by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. ... Kim Stanley Robinson at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. ... Future Primitive - The New Ecotopias, Tor Books, 1994, edited by Kim Stanley Robinson, republishes notable short works of utopian fiction and dystopian fiction, incorporating elements of primitivism and of eco-anarchism. ...

Another important subgenre is feminist utopias, for example Marge Piercy's novel Woman On the Edge of Time. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. ...

See also

• Utopia and Category:Utopian fiction
• Dystopia and Category:Dystopian fiction