Kumar's Utopianism Chapter 5 Summary/Response Essay (Ideal Worlds 08-12-12).

Joseph Melanson
August 01, 2012

Summary:

            Kumar, in the first part of the chapter 5 describes how utopian authors encountered “persecution and imprisonment for their utopian endeavor” (86). Some authors like Zamyatin and Orwell “faced exile and rejection from several publishers” (Kumar 87). This persecution arises because of the threat these utopian works place on the powers that be because of the mirror they hold up to society.

            The basic form that the typical utopia takes, Kumar states, is the “narrative of a journey” (89). These journeys show imagined characters as strangers in a strange land, who find themselves in an ideal place, and this ideal place becomes an indirect criticism of the authors own place and time. These utopian journeys are also more powerful as they show social theory in action in narrative, rather than social theory in abstract principles and concepts.

            Utopia it is reasoned by some critics, must inevitably lead towards “tyranny and totalitarianism” (Kumar 90). This is due to the belief by some that any attempt to organize society into an ideal state, and then to maintain this order, must suppress “the conflict and diversity that are an inescapable and enriching part of human life” (Kumar 90). Utopia in its capacity for becoming real has led some to believe that this realizablity is a threat to mankind due to its tendency to become a totalitarian state. Our “modern utopia”, Kumar states, “is a socialist utopia” and the failure of previous socialist attempts has also been seen as failure of utopia as well (94).

            Utopia still has its usefulness though. Kumar asks if utopia is “to be taken literally, a call to action, to the practical realization of utopias as the mode of progress?” (95). It is feared by anti-utopians that this realization of utopia will result in the “authoritarian regimentation” which has been the result of attempts at utopias for the past two centuries (95).

            Despite this threat Kumar states that “utopian conceptions are indispensible to politics”, and without them politic becomes a mere “soulless void” (95). It is shortsighted though to reduce utopia to only its political usefulness. “As a literary genre” Kumar states, utopia serves as “a mixture of remote distance from, and fierce familiarity with, the real world of politics and society” (96).

            The writer of literary utopias has the challenge of creating his invented world that not only works on its own, but still provides a means to which one may examine contemporary society. The writer of utopian social theory Kumar states, must also provide a “comprehensive, critical perspective on modern society” (97). Both literary utopias and utopian social theory serve a myriad of functions and should be looked at for their usefulness and not deemed worthless because of past failures at realization. Kumar states, “there is no end to the uses of utopia” (98).

            It is in the past century that “anti-utopian current has been strongest” with works like “Brave New World, Darkness at Noon, and Nineteen Eighty-Four” getting the most attention (99). These anti-utopian works serve to work as mirrors to utopia, and each one serves to show the perfections and flaws in each respective genre. Each genre has seen its own vicissitudes of success and admonishment, but each continues respectively as tools for social movement, especially in the field of “contemporary feminism” (101).

            As women increasingly move into the domain of men and beyond their traditional role as captive in the home and relegated to its maintenance, feminist utopias have arisen to challenge and add to the genre of utopia. Another genre of utopia called ecotopia has emerged from the “ecology movement” (103). The ecotopia hopes to make man’s place in the world harmonious with nature, rather than dominate nature with industry. Both the feminist and the ecotopia are just two recent development in the genre which will only continue to develop and flourish as mankind increasingly becomes able to develop and flourish as well.

Response:

            Until the founding of America there was no freedom of expression, and in some parts of the world this concept still does not exist. I believe that the birth of utopia arose out of this need to challenge the status quo, and the authorities that maintained it for their own benefit. This new challenge to the powers that be naturally suppressed it, perhaps not completely understanding of the danger posed by utopian writers, but still aware that these authors posed a threat to their positions.

            The utopian journey makes us aware that there are always better places than where we are, and the greatest concept that one can get from utopia is that rather than waiting and hoping for some better place and time, rather than wishing for escape from our current circumstances, we can attempt to make the world a better place from wherever we are at the moment.

            Utopia, Kumar informs us in chapter 5, has been misused and abused like so many other beneficial concepts. Utopia is not to be blamed for this misuse, but rather those who merely used it to put themselves in power, and subverted utopia to their own ends.

           

            In our recent history we have seen the horrors and atrocities of world wars, fought by societies that each believed was fighting for their own utopian cause. This fighting has led some to believe that it is the fault of the utopian concept, while Kumar informs us in chapter 5 that utopia, like mankind, is till within its early developing stages.

             What I got out of chapter 5 was that utopia, like many concepts, can be abused and misused, corrupted and bent to self-serving purposes. But as the world becomes ever more interconnected, this utopian concept, I believe, will finally be realized in some form or fashion in the future. It is up to mankind, I believe, to take the responsibility in taking active control in the development of our utopian ideal, and learn the lessons from history to never allow again authorities to ride its wave into power, and then pervert the utopian concept to their own agenda.

              Utopia, I believe, still retains a very important means to examine our societies, and give us a direction to consider in which we should be moving.


Works Cited:

Kumar, Krishan. Utopianism: Concepts in Social Thought. “Chapter 5: Utopia on the Map of the World”. Great Britain: University of Minnesota Press. 1991. 86-107. Print.