DOCSLIB.ORG

Saurashtra University Library Service

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Etheses - A Saurashtra University Library Service Saurashtra University Re – Accredited Grade ‘B’ by NAAC (CGPA 2.93) Mankad, Urja M., 2009, “The Dystopian Novels in the First Half of the 20th Century: A Comparative Study of 1984 (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and Anthem (Ayn Rand)”, thesis PhD, Saurashtra University http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu/id/838 Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Saurashtra University Theses Service http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu [email protected] © The Author THE DYSTOPIAN NOVELS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20 TH CENTURY : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 1984 (GEORGE ORWELL), BRAVE NEW WORLD (ALDOUS HUXLEY) AND ANTHEM (AYN RAND) DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY, RAJKOT FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH Supervised by Submitted by Dr. K.H. Mehta Ms. Urja M. Mankad Prof. and Head Smt. S.H. Gardi Institute of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot (Gujarat) 2009 CERTIFICATE This is to certify that this dissertation on THE DYSTOPIAN NOVELS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20 th CENTURY : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 1984 (GEORGE ORWELL), BRAVE NEW WORLD (ALDOUS HUXLEY) AND ANTHEM (AYN RAND), is submitted by Ms. Urja Mukul Mankad for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the faculty of Arts of Saurashtra University, Rajkot. No part of this dissertation has been submitted for any other Degree or Diploma. Rajkot Date : Supervisor (Kamal Mehta) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to those who have encouraged and helped me to accomplish the research work. Such a research work would have been impossible without the support of family, relatives, friends and well-wishers. Words will not be enough to express my gratitude to them who have helped me to achieve the dream cherished by my father Late Shri Mukul K. Mankad. I express my profound sense of gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Kamal H. Mehta, Professor and Head, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Rajkot. I am extremely thankful to him for his insightful guidance and kind and encouraging attitude that made this research work a pleasant journey. I thank Professor Avadesh Kumar Singh for his useful remarks. I convey my thanks to Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee for showing me the path to reach the destination. I also thank Dr. Jaydipsinh Dodiya, Dr. Ravisinh Zala, faculties of the Department of English and comparative Literary Studies for their academic support. I am indebted to the different libraries that have provided necessary material pertaining to the dissertation. I thank the Central Library of Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Library of Department of English and Comparative Literary studies, Rajkot, Gujarat Vidyapith Library, Ahmedabad, British Library, Ahmedabad, M.S. University Library, Vadodara, and P.D.M. College Library, Rajkot. I would like to thank Dr. K.M. Jani, Principal P.D.M. College of Commerce, Dr. Dipti K. Trivedi, Lecturer, P.D.M. College of Commerce, Rajkot for their constant support. I am extremely indebted to my mother Manjari M. Mankad who never allowed to me to be disheartened, who never made me feel absence of my papa. I am equally thankful to my parents-in-law, Bipinbhai Mankad and Zaranaben Mankad who bore many inconveniences to provide me the timely help. I will always remain thankful to my husband Ojas Mankad who never let my spirit down and constantly encouraged and helped me. I take this opportunity to thank Rameshbhai Mankad, Uncle-in-law, Shradhdhaben, Sister-in-law, Krutarth, Pankti and all the family members for their ever pleasant attitude. This doctoral dissertation would have never been completed without my family's immense care and assistance in looking after my daughter and household so as to enable me to concentrate on my work. I must not forget to mention thanks in abundance to my lovely daughter Twara who showed great patience and understanding in allowing me to do my work. My sincerest regards to all. Urja M. Mankad CONTENTS Acknowledgements Chapter - I Science Fiction and Dystopia 1 - 47 Chapter - II George Orwell's 1984 48 -124 Chapter - III Aldous Huxley's Brave New World 125 - 202 Chapter - IV Ayn Rand's Anthem 203 - 241 Chapter - V A Comparative Study of 1984 , Brave 242 - 278 New World and Anthem Select Bibliography 280 - 283 CHAPTER - I Science Fiction and Dystopia CHAPTER : I SCIENCE FICTION AND DYSTOPIA "A Science Fiction is a narrative (usually in prose) of short story, novella or novel length. As to what it is about is not easily classifiable. Such stories are about an amazing variety of things, topics, ideas. They include trips to other worlds, quests, the exploration of space, visits to other planets and interplanetary warfare". (quoted by Cuddon : 791) Most people feel that they can recognize Science Fiction when they come across it in their daily lives, whether it is a novel or an episode in a television drama. Indeed, when used as a marketing tool, Science Fiction is defined in broad and inclusive terms, taking in everything from space vessels and laser guns to kooky aliens and vampires. For Science Fiction to be recognized as a distinct genre, there have to be some boundaries, rules or ideal parameters that define what constitutes Science Fiction and exclude what doesn’t. Here are two examples from literature to see where they lead. First, is the classic novel Titus Groan (1946) by Mervyn Peake. In this work, the author portrays the lives of a group of people who exist within the confines of an enormous castle, Gormenghast. This castle is effectively a city unto itself, so huge and labyrinthine that much of it remains unexplored by its current inhabitants who go about their lives according to a set of obsessively detailed scriptures and ancient regulations that give the place a real sense of oppressively looming history. Peake explores in great depth the bizarre environment of these people and examines in telling detail the effect it has on the inhabitants themselves. While in Dune , (1965) Herbert sets out, in much the same manner as Peake, to describe in painstaking detail. An imaginary world, the PLANET Arrakis, and the way of life 1 that its ecology imposes upon its necessarily hardy inhabitants. However, what sets Dune (1965) apart from Titus Groan (1946) is the manner in which its author establishes his invented world. He describes in true ecological terms the physical geography of the planet, even to the consistency of its soil, the various forms of life that may have evolved in this environment over time. Arrakis is a vast parched desert with no water supply of its own. This comparison between two classic works of imaginative fiction, one fantasy, the other science fiction is by no means the final word on the subject, and is at best an over generalization. Science Fiction is a literature concerned with the process by which a depicted environment has become different from our own, or with the means by which humanity finds itself there. This does not rule out narrative elements of intrigue, adventure and so forth. (Mann : 5). It does not imply that Science Fiction will attempt to examine the wider picture, for example by questioning how aliens might have developed on Mars and exploring the effects that their existence could have upon the way in which human beings view themselves and the wider universe. One of the best ways to envisage a time. different from our own, to devise a temporal “laboratory” within which to test new ideas, is to look forward to the future. Science Fiction emphasizes its difference from fantasy by attempting to construct a rational frame work for anything that it describes. Brian Aldiss defines Science fiction thus : Science Fiction is the search for a definition of mankind and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science) and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or Post-Gothic mode”. (quoted by Cuddon : 791) He also defines it more succinctly as "Hubris clobbered by nemesis". 2 Some Science Fictions are concerned with utopia and utopist visions, and also with dystopia. Others are set in the future but are not utopian. Still others are set in the past. Many have a contemporary settings which is somehow influenced by the arrival or invasion of alien beings or by some invention which profoundly alters normality. They are also concerned with technological change and development with scientific experiment with social, climatic, geological and ecological change. Some are concerned with supernatural forces and agencies. They are often fantastic, though they may be rooted in reality. They stretch the imagination. Science Fantasy or Space Opera will use devices derived from Science Fiction to describe new and exciting environments, but in many ways both subcategories remain more true to the pulp-fiction genres of the 1920s and 1930s. This is because they do not bother to make plausible their invented futures, being more concerned with the adventure components of their storylines and more willing to go beyond the realms of scientific plausibility to create spectacular effects.
Recommended publications
  • Myth, Metatext, Continuity and Cataclysm in Dc Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths

    Myth, Metatext, Continuity and Cataclysm in Dc Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths

    WORLDS WILL LIVE, WORLDS WILL DIE: MYTH, METATEXT, CONTINUITY AND CATACLYSM IN DC COMICS’ CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Adam C. Murdough A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2006 Committee: Angela Nelson, Advisor Marilyn Motz Jeremy Wallach ii ABSTRACT Angela Nelson, Advisor In 1985-86, DC Comics launched an extensive campaign to revamp and revise its most important superhero characters for a new era. In many cases, this involved streamlining, retouching, or completely overhauling the characters’ fictional back-stories, while similarly renovating the shared fictional context in which their adventures take place, “the DC Universe.” To accomplish this act of revisionist history, DC resorted to a text-based performative gesture, Crisis on Infinite Earths. This thesis analyzes the impact of this singular text and the phenomena it inspired on the comic-book industry and the DC Comics fan community. The first chapter explains the nature and importance of the convention of “continuity” (i.e., intertextual diegetic storytelling, unfolding progressively over time) in superhero comics, identifying superhero fans’ attachment to continuity as a source of reading pleasure and cultural expressivity as the key factor informing the creation of the Crisis on Infinite Earths text. The second chapter consists of an eschatological reading of the text itself, in which it is argued that Crisis on Infinite Earths combines self-reflexive metafiction with the ideologically inflected symbolic language of apocalypse myth to provide DC Comics fans with a textual "rite of transition," to win their acceptance for DC’s mid-1980s project of self- rehistoricization and renewal.
  • Individuation in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Island

    Individuation in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Island

    Maria de Fátima de Castro Bessa Individuation in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Island: Jungian and Post-Jungian Perspectives Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte 2007 Individuation in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Island: Jungian and Post-Jungian Perspectives by Maria de Fátima de Castro Bessa Submitted to the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras: Estudos Literários in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Mestre em Letras: Estudos Literários. Area: Literatures in English Thesis Advisor: Prof. Julio Cesar Jeha, PhD Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte 2007 To my daughters Thaís and Raquel In memory of my father Pedro Parafita de Bessa (1923-2002) Bessa i Acknowledgements Many people have helped me in writing this work, and first and foremost I would like to thank my advisor, Julio Jeha, whose friendly support, wise advice and vast knowledge have helped me enormously throughout the process. I could not have done it without him. I would also like to thank all the professors with whom I have had the privilege of studying and who have so generously shared their experience with me. Thanks are due to my classmates and colleagues, whose comments and encouragement have been so very important. And Letícia Magalhães Munaier Teixeira, for her kindness and her competence at PosLit I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Irene Ferreira de Souza, whose encouragement and support were essential when I first started to study at Faculdade de Letras. I am also grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the research fellowship.
  • Brave New World

    Brave New World

    BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Chapter One A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main en- trance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDEN- TITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic goose- flesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porce- lain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. The overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse- coloured rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables. "And this," said the Director opening the door, "is the Fertilizing Room." Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration. A troop of newly arrived students, very young, pink and callow, followed nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director's heels. Each of them carried a notebook, in which, whenever the great man spoke, he desperately scribbled. Straight from the horse's mouth. It was a rare privilege.
  • Family History #3

    Family History #3

    HOP PICKING IN OUR FAMILY HISTORY HOP PICKING LIFE It is impossible for us to really understand the interlude that hop picking had in the life of Londoners. It wasn’t an easy life and as the prices for hops fell in the 1950’s, the pay was low. But, good or bad, thousands regularly left their homes in London for the Kent hop fields. A holiday? A change of scenery? A chance to earn a few extra pennies? The opportunity for the children to enjoy fresh air and green grass? The reasons are as many and varied as the people who went. HOPPER HUT Accommodation in the hopper huts was basic even for the East Enders. I have no doubt if they were asked they would have replied that, “A change is as good as a ‘oliday!” The first job for the transplanted Londoners was to fill large sacking with straw for mattresses. Toilets were outside and bathing was of the tin tub variety {this may not have been so different from what they left behind) Most huts were made out of corrugated iron which meant cold nights and hot days. Mum said that some women took a few “specials” with them to make it more like home. A little bit of wallpaper, left over curtain material provided them with the illusion of home comforts. THE HOPPER SPECIAL For the thousands of East Enders who made the annual pilgrimage the choices of how to get there was either in a special train or open backed army trucks. The necessities of life needed for the Kent hop fields were packed into old prams and boxes or stuffed into the back of trucks with a child sitting on each as a mark of ownership.
  • Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation

    Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation

    09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 113 The Limits of Egalitarianism: Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation Marian Mollin In April 1947, a group of young men posed for a photograph outside of civil rights attorney Spottswood Robinson’s office in Richmond, Virginia. Dressed in suits and ties, their arms held overcoats and overnight bags while their faces carried an air of eager anticipation. They seemed, from the camera’s perspective, ready to embark on an exciting adventure. Certainly, in a nation still divided by race, this visibly interracial group of black and white men would have caused people to stop and take notice. But it was the less visible motivations behind this trip that most notably set these men apart. All of the group’s key organizers and most of its members came from the emerging radical pacifist movement. Opposed to violence in all forms, many had spent much of World War II behind prison walls as conscientious objectors and resisters to war. Committed to social justice, they saw the struggle for peace and the fight for racial equality as inextricably linked. Ardent egalitarians, they tried to live according to what they called the brotherhood principle of equality and mutual respect. As pacifists and as militant activists, they believed that nonviolent action offered the best hope for achieving fundamental social change. Now, in the wake of the Second World War, these men were prepared to embark on a new political jour- ney and to become, as they inscribed in the scrapbook that chronicled their traveling adventures, “courageous” makers of history.1 Radical History Review Issue 88 (winter 2004): 113–38 Copyright 2004 by MARHO: The Radical Historians’ Organization, Inc.
  • Brave New World: the Correlation of Social Order and the Process Of

    Brave New World: the Correlation of Social Order and the Process Of

    Brave New World: The Correlation of Social Order and the Process of Literary Translation by Maria Reinhard A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in German Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2008 ! Maria Reinhard 2008 Author's Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract This comparative analysis of four different German-language versions of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) shows the correlation between political and socio- cultural circumstances, as well as ideological differences, and translations of the novel. The first German translation was created by Herberth E. Herlitschka in 1932, entitled Welt – Wohin? Two further versions of it were released in 1950 and 1981. In 1978, the East German publisher Das Neue Berlin published a new translation created by Eva Walch, entitled Schöne neue Welt. My thesis focuses on the first translations by both Herlitschka and Walch, but takes into account the others as well. The methodological basis is Heidemarie Salevsky’s tripartite model. With its focus on author and work, commissioning institution and translator, it was developed as a tool to determine the factors influencing the process of literary translation. Within this framework, the translations are contextualized within the cultural and political circumstances of the Weimar and German Democratic Republics, including an historical overview of the two main publishers, Insel and Das Neue Berlin.
  • Prophet of Pacifism by Nilesh Nathwani

    Prophet of Pacifism by Nilesh Nathwani

    Prophet of Pacifism. By Nilesh Nathwani Revolutionary thinkers believe in incessant revolution. They see constant change as a way of life. Initially, Mahatma Gandhi was concerned about creating an environment hospitable to change within a relatively stable political system of colonialism. He wanted a political system in which healthy unrest would work for continuous renewal. Freedom would be continually enlarged and extended, resulting in the upward evolution of a society towards a higher and different power as he described it. This process would start when a political system is created, where people respect minorities. The sense of freedom would then become a national and individual pride. Freedom is gained by vigilance and struggle; it can, however, be lost if society remains indifferent and supine. One has to fight for freedom with the right weapons, though not with guns. The sense of freedom should be from within and not brought about by an outer force. However controversial it sounds, Gandhiji demonstrated this principle in his lifetime. He went behind bars to gain that freedom. He preferred to be behind walls than to suppress his struggle for freedom. When jailed for refusing to pay the salt tax at the end of the Dandi March, he observed that even behind walls of stone and mortar he was freer than those who had jailed him. Gandhiji practised the struggle with his soul spirit and gave the world the principle of Satyagraha. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes Satyagraha as truth force. I would call it soul force. It is a principle that encourages you not to submit to wrong or to co-operate with it in any way.
  • Self-Actualization: Transcendentalist Discourse in the Work of Stuart Saunders Smith

    Self-Actualization: Transcendentalist Discourse in the Work of Stuart Saunders Smith

    SELF-ACTUALIZATION: TRANSCENDENTALIST DISCOURSE IN THE WORK OF STUART SAUNDERS SMITH José Augusto Duarte Lacerda A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS December 2015 Committee: Roger Schupp, Advisor Timothy Messer-Kruse Graduate Faculty Representative Marilyn Shrude Robert Wallace Thomas Rosenkranz © 2015 José Augusto Duarte Lacerda All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Roger Schupp, Advisor Born and raised in Maine, composer Stuart Saunders Smith (1948) grew up immersed in a milieu that still echoed the influence of the nineteenth-century literary movement known as Transcendentalism. The work of key Transcendentalist figures, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, show the movement’s emphasis on autonomy, intuition, pacifism, and social justice. But Transcendentalism also maintains a spiritual focus: a claim that each person is part of a single universal spirit—“Oneness.” However, this “Oneness” does not equate to homogeneity of ideas and individual voices. Rather, each person’s divine worth grants them autonomy of thought and agency. Both the social and spiritual ideas of Transcendentalism have informed Smith’s music, his writings on music compositional process, and his personal life. Amongst the Transcendentalist notions displayed in Smith’s music, pacifism and anti- technologism appear in his use of intricate rhythms. A Thoreauvian anti-materialism can be found in Smith’s limited use of instrumentation and in his concept of “percussion ecology.” Moreover, the Transcendentalist non-teleological stance is reflected in Smith’s tendency to write evening-length pieces that disregard form, his recurring references to New England imagery, and his use of non-sequiturs.
  • The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi's Critique of Violence for Gandhi, Political

    The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi's Critique of Violence for Gandhi, Political

    CHAPTER ONE The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi’s Critique of Violence For Gandhi, political life was, in a profound and fundamental sense, closely bound to the problem of violence. At the same time, his understanding and critique of violence was multiform and layered; violence’s sources and consequences were at once ontological, moral and ethical, as well as distinctly political. Gandhi held a metaphysical account of the world – one broadly drawn from Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist philosophy – that accepted himsa or violence to be an ever-present and unavoidable fact of human existence. The world, he noted, was “bound in a chain of destruction;” the basic mechanisms for the reproduction of biological and social life necessarily involved continuous injury to living matter. But modern civilization – its economic and political institutions as well as the habits it promoted and legitimated – posed the problem of violence in new and insistent terms. Gandhi famously declared the modern state to represent “violence in a concentrated and organized form;” it was a “soulless machine” that – like industrial capitalism – was premised upon and generated coercive forms of centralization and hierarchy.1 These institutions enforced obedience through the threat of violence, they forced people to labor unequally, they oriented desires towards competitive material pursuits. In his view, civilization was rendering persons increasingly weak, passive, and servile; in impinging upon moral personality, modern life degraded and deformed it. This was the structural violence of modernity, a violence that threatened bodily integrity but also human dignity, individuality, and autonomy. In this respect, Gandhi’s deepest ethical objection to violence was closely tied to a worldview that took violence to inhere in modern modes of politics and modern ways of living.
  • Fish Terminologies

    Fish Terminologies

    FISH TERMINOLOGIES Monument Type Thesaurus Report Format: Hierarchical listing - class Notes: Classification of monument type records by function.
  • 7. Extension: Find out About Some People Who Have Practised Pacifism

    7. Extension: Find out About Some People Who Have Practised Pacifism

    1. What are your thoughts on pacifism? Examples of religious beliefs for () and against () Pacifists believe it is 2. Explain what pacifism is and what pacifists believe. pacifism better to be passive and not be violent, Pacifism is a belief that… ! Some Christians, such as A _______________, are whatever the consequences, than to pacifists. They believe Jesus taught peace and actively be violent and forgiveness, and opposed violence even in self- cause harm. defence. Non-religious Some Muslims believe Allah prefers peace to B people have _______________. different views Pacifists may also believe… on pacifism. 3. Fill in the quote. Many Hindus are pacifists because of the Hindu belief in ahimsa (C _______________) Some Christians, Muslims and Hindus are not pacifists, as they believe violence is D _______________ in some circumstances, e.g. the Qur’an permits violence in E _______________. 7. Extension: Find out about some people who have practised pacifism. Note down some examples. (Matthew 5:44 NRSV) ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be 4. Write the correct multiple-choice answer in the gaps above. called children of God.’ (Matthew 5:9 NRSV) A – fundamentalists Catholics Quakers B – forgiveness violence death 5. Give some potential problems with pacifism. C – non-violence violence peace D – justified wrong useless E – anger self-defence all circumstances 6. Extension: ‘People should not be pacifists.’ Evaluate this statement. (12 marks) Argue for and against this statement. You must give religious arguments and you may give non-religious arguments. Reach a conclusion which follows from your argument. Make some notes here, and then complete the answer in your book or on the back.
  • Postcolonial Utopias Or Imagining 'Brave New Worlds'

    Postcolonial Utopias Or Imagining 'Brave New Worlds'

    Postcolonial Utopias or Imagining ‘Brave New Worlds’: Caliban Speaks Back Corina Kesler │ University of Michigan Citation: Corina Kesler, “Postcolonial Utopias or Imagining ‘Brave New Worlds’: Caliban Speaks Back”, Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal, 2nd series, no. 1, 2012, pp. 88-107<http://ler.letras.up.pt > ISSN 1646-4729. “this is the oppressor’s language, yet I need it to speak to you” bell hooks1 I have recently completed a doctoral project that focused on lesser-known utopian expressions from non-Western cultures such as Romania, the pre-Israel Jewish diaspora, and postcolonial countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and India. I hypothesized a causal relationship between the conditions of oppression and expressions of utopia. Roughly: the more a people, culture, and/or ethnicity experience physical space as a site of political, cultural, and literal encroachment, the more that distinct culture’s utopian ideas tend to appear in non-spatial, specifically, temporal formulations. Under the pressures of oppression, the specific character of an ethnic group/individual, having been challenged within a (often national) space, seeks not a ‘where’ (utopia), but a ‘when’ (uchronia or intopia) of mythical, or mystical time. And it is there, or rather, then, where oppressed groups give the utopian impulse expression, and define, protect, and develop their own identity. To support this hypothesis, I examined in detail texts like Mircea Eliade’s The Forbidden Forest, Sergiu Fărcășan’s A Love Story from the Year 41,042, Bujor Nedelcovici’s The Second Messenger, Oana Orlea’s Perimeter Zero, Costache Olareanu’s Fear; Ben Okri’s Astonishing the Gods; Kajo Laing’s Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars; Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium and Discovery; and The Zohar: The Book of Splendor, and practices like the Sabbath in Classical Kabbalah and the Păltiniș Paidetic school in Romania.