The Spectre of Utopia: Utopian and Science Fictions at the “Fin de Si�cle”

In the late nineteenth century, a spectre haunted Europe and the United States: the spectre of utopia.This book re-examines the rise of utopian thought at the fin de si�cle, situating it in the social and political contradictions of the time and exploring the ways in which it articulated a deepening sense that the capitalist system might not be insuperable after all. The study pays particular attention to Edward Bellamy�s seminal utopian fiction, Looking Backward (1888), embedding it in a number of unfamiliar contexts, and reading its richest passages against the grain, but it also offers detailed discussions of William Morris, H.G. Wells and Oscar Wilde. Both historical and theoretical in its approach, this book constitutes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the utopian imaginary, and an original analysis of the counter-culture in which it thrived at the fin de si�cle.The Spectre of Utopia: Utopian and Science Fictions at the “Fin de Si�cle” 1st Edition is written by Matthew Beaumont and published by Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. ISBNs for The Spectre of Utopia are 9783035302066, 3035302065 and the print ISBNs are 9783034307253, 303430725X.