On Utopian (Im)Perfection and Solidarity in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race

Bibliographic Data

ID6012012
AuthorsMarta Komsta (0000-0001-7807-2619, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume29
Issue2
Pages159-175
Publication date2018-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueUtopian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-991X • E-ISSN: 2154-9648
PublisherThe Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5325/utopianstudies.29.2.0159
OpenAlexW2884454755
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited3

The question of solidarity in utopian narratives is connected with the long-standing juxtaposition of the collective and the individual in the sociopolitical model of the commonwealth; foregrounded here is the connection between the systemic solidarity of the state and the individualized solidarity between its members. Following the definitions of solidarity proposed by Jodi Dean, Max Pensky, and others, the article discusses Edward Bulwer-Lytton's seminal Victorian utopia, The Coming Race (1871), in the context of the relationship between utopian collectivism and its politics of exclusion and/or elimination of potentially disruptive elements. In contrast to a typical approach to the text as a satire on some of the prevalent issues of the period, this article argues that, by accentuating the evolutionary disparity between the protagonist and his utopian hosts, Bulwer-Lytton's utopia enables an investigation into an often ambivalent relationship between diverse definitions of solidarity

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Commonwealth · Ideology · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · Utopia · Gender Studies · History · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Modernist Literature and Criticism · Philosophy · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

Tools

Open DOI