What Is a Utopia?

Lyman Tower Sargent

Lyman Tower Sargent professor de Cincias Polticas na Universidade

de Missouri-St. Louis e Honorary Research Fellow no Departamento de
Histria no Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Universidade
de Londres. Professor Visitante nas Universidades de Exeter e East
Anglia, na London School of Economics and Political Science, e na
Victoria University of Wellington (Nova Zelndia). Foi Membro
Visitante do Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). Foi o editor
fundador da Utopian Studies (1990 2004), autor de British and American
-

Utopian Literature, 15 16-198 5: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography

(1988), Contemporary Political Ideologies: A Comparative Analysis (13th
ed. 2005), New Left Thought: An Introduction (1972), co autor, com
-

Lucy Sargisson, de Living in Utopia: Intentional Communities in New

Zealand (2004); co editor, com Gregory Claeys, de The Utopia Reader
-

(1999), editor de Extremism in America: A Reader (1995) e Political

Thought in the United States: A Documentary History (1997), alm de
ser autor ou editor de outros livros e de uma centena de artigos, em sua
maioria sobre aspectos do utopismo. Junto com Gregory Claeys, foi o
fundador e co-editor da Syracuse University Press Series on Utopianism
and Communitarianism, que publicou mais de vinte volumes. De 1997
a 2000 deu superviso Bibliothque Nationale de France e ao New
York Public Library em sua exposio conjunta "Utopie: La qute de la
socit idale en Occident/Utopia: The Quest for the Ideal Society in
the West" exibida em Paris de Abril a Julho de 2000 e em Nova York
de Outubro de 2000 a Janeiro de 2001. co-editor, com Roland Schaer
e Gregory Claeys dos catlogos publicados para acompanhar estas
exposies. Recebeu o "Distinguished Scholar Award" da Society for
Utopian Studies e do Communal Studies Association.
LYMAN TOWER SARGENT

1 See, in chronological order, One would think that, in the almost five hundred years since
Sargent, "The Three Faces of
Utopianism" (1967), "Utopia: Thomas More coined the word utopia, there would be agreement on
The Problem of Definition" its meaning, but there still remam n some fundamental disagreements,
(1975), "Introduction"
to British and American including both old and relatively new problems. Over the years, I have
Utopian Literatura 1516- written extensively on definitional questions', .and here I shall focus on
1975 (1979)," Political
Dimensions of Utopianism what I see as continuing issues in the scholarship that I believe to be
A
Wm ith
eriScpan
ecicalo Referentar
cei to sin.
particularly important. There are, I think, a number of reasons for the
(1992), "The Three Faces continuing issues, and in this essay I want to glance at some of those
of Utopianism Revisited"
(1994), "The Problem of the
reasons and the problems they raise. In doing so, I shall comment on
'Flawed Utopia . " (2003), and the shifting boundaries of the definition of utopia and argue that while
"Utopia." New Dictionary of
the History of Ideas (2004). My some definitions are simply wrong, we should not expect that a single
most recent definitions are as definition wifl fit all times and places.
follows:
More's use of the word he invented gave rise to problems because
Utopianism: social dreaming.
it was itself playful. In "Six Lines on the Island of Utopia", he wrote,
Utopia: a non-existent society
described in considerable "The ancients called me Utopia or Nowhere because of my isolation.
detail and nonnally located in At present, however, I am a rival of Plato's republic, perhaps even a
time and space. In standard
usage utopia is used both victor over it. The reason is that what he has delineated in words I alone
as defined here and as an
equivalent for eutopia (below).
have exhibited in man and resources and laws of surpassing excellence.
Eutopia or positive utopia: a
Deservedly ought I to be called by the name of Eutopia or Happy
non-existent society described Land" (More, Utopia, 21). This play on words provides the earliest
in considerable detail and
normally located in time and
source for problems of meaning.
space that the author intended Second, the word "utopia" became the label for a genre ofliterature,
a contemporaneous reader to
view as considerably better and authors who wrote within that genre pushed at the boundaries they
than the society in which that found and radically expanded the scope of the genre and thus the word.
reader lived.
For example, in 1872 Samuel Butler published Erewhon, which clearly
Dystopia or negative utopia: a
non-existent society described belongs in the genre but which also looks very different from More's
in considerable detail and Utopia. As a result, the word "erewhonian" was invented to describe this
normafiy located In time and
space that the author intended sub-genre, and other sub-genres like Gulliveriana and Robinsonaden
a contemporaneous reader to
view as considerably worse
developed even earlier. Thus, authors doing what they do best, being
than the society in which that creative, have made the original complex term infinitely more complex.
reader lived. The first use of
this word is usually ascribed
A recent example of a new form is Abaza: A Modern Encyclopedia (2001)
to Negley and Patrick's by Louis Nowra, which is an encyclopedia describing a dystopia.
"Introduction" to their
Third, More's word carne to describe not just a literary genre
anthology, but there were
much earlier uses. Deirdre but also a way of thinking, which I call utopianism, and utopia and
Ni Chuanachin has recently
noted a use in 1747 by Henry utopianism are often conflated. This is important because it leads to
Lewis Younge in bis Utopia or works that do not look at all like More's Utopia being called utopias
Apollo's Golden Days. Before
this discovery, the earliest because at some point they involve thinking about different ways of
usage appeared to be in 1782.
See Patricia Kster, "Dystopia:
living. For example, descriptions of ideal cities and what might be called
An Eighteenth Century architectural utopias have long been appropriately considered as part of
Appearance." Notes & Querias
228 (n. s. 30, no. 1) (February
utopianism, but often they have not been part of the literary genre. In
1983): 65-66 where she says addition, there are paintings like the various works entitled "Peaceable
that the first use was in 1782
by Noel Turner (1739-1826) as Kingdom" by Edward Hicks (1780-1849). Finally, intentional
dys-topia [first three letters in communities, which were once called utopian experiments, are also
Greek] in "Letter VICE" of bis

154
 WHAT IS A UTOPIA?

appropriately included (See Sargent, "The Intersection of Utopianism Candid Suggestions in Eight
Letters to Soame Jenkins, Esq.
and Communitarianism"). (London, 1782), 169-72. John
Stuart Mill used "dys-topian"
Fourth, scholarship in the field is often based on very limited in the House of Commons.
reading within the genre, which means that simple descriptions are Hansard (12 March 1868, page
1517, column 1) reports him
given of a complex phenomenon. In other cases, definitions that are saying "I may be permitted,
appropriate for the particular time and place on which the author as one who, in common with
many of my betters, have been
focuses do not comfortably fit other times and places 2. For example, subjected to the charge of
one of the best studies of early utopianism, J.C. Davis's Utopia and lhe being Utopian, to congratulate
the Government on having
Ideal Society (1981) defines utopia as one of five subcategories of ideal joined that goocily company. It
society thinking (cockaygne, arcadia, perfect moral commonwealth, is, perhaps, too complimentary
to call them Utopians, they
millennium, and utopia). The distinctions that Davis makes work for ought rather to be cafied dys-
topians, or cacotopians. What
the period he covers (1516-1700), but I have found them much harder is cornmonly called Utopian
to apply to later utopianism, particularly the twentieth and twenty-first is something too good to be
practicable, but what they
centuries. appear to favour is too bad
The most basic aspect of the topic is what I call utopianism or to be practicable." According
to the OED, Cacotopia was
social dreaming. Every country, every culture, will have some way of first used by Jeremy Bentham
social dreaming, dreaming about a better way of life, whether it be in in his Plan of Parliamentary
Reform, in the Form of a
the past, the future, after death, or whatever. This indicates that we must Catechism (1818).
be ready to accept that utopias will not ali look alike. For example, there Utopian satire: a non-
are different versions of life after death; the Native American Indian's existent society described
in considerable detail and
version is radically different from that of most Christian versions, normafiy located in time and
space that the author intended
and the Christian version of Dante's time is very different from the a contemporaneous reader
dominant Christian version of today. Paradise for one people or time is to view as a criticism of that
contemporary society.
not Paradise for another people or time.
Anti-utopia: a non-existent
It is instructive to look at two definitions from early scholars. society described in
Joyce Oramel Hertzler defines utopias by identifying a "distinctive considerable detail and
normally located in time
characteristic" of More's Utopia, saying ". . . More depicted a perfect, and space that the author
and perhaps unrealizable, society, located in nowhere, purged of the intended a contemporaneous
reader to view as a criticism
shortcomings, the wastes, and the confusion of our own time and living of utopianism or of some
in perfect adjustment, full of happiness and contentment". J. Max particular eutopia.

Patrick also based his definition on More, saying: Criticai utopia: a non-
existent society described
in considerable detail and
. . . a utopia conforms to certain basic features of More's Libellus, normally located in time
which gave the genre its name. A utopia should describe in a variety of aspects and space that the author
intended a contemporaneous
and with some consistency an imaginary state or society which is regarded as
reader to view as better than
better, in some respects at least, than the one in which its author lives. He does contemporary society but with
not ordinarily claim that the fictitious society and its people are perfect in ali clifficult problems that the
respects and that he is propounding a total ideal or model to strive toward or described society may or may
imitate; most utopias are presented not as models of unrealistic perfection but not be able to solve and which
takes a criticai view of lhe
as alternatives to the familiar, as norms by which to judge existing societies, utopian genre.
as exercises in extrapolation to discover the social and other implications of
Criticai dystopia: a non-
realizing certain theories, principies and projects.
existent society described
in considerable detail and
normally located in time
But these definitions, on the surface the same, differ in one very and space that the author
important way; Hertzler's utopias are perfect and Patrick's are not. intended a contemporaneous
reader to view as worse than

155
LYMAN TOWER SARGENT

contemporary society but that starting at the logical starting point, we are faced with a dispute over the
normally includes at least one
eutopian enclave or holds out nature of utopia. And the difference is important because the equation
hope that the dystopia can be
overcome and replaced with a
has been used by Karl Popper and others to dismiss utopianism as the
eutopia. equivalent of totalitarianism.
Flawed utopia: works that Patrick is right, and Hertzler is quite simply wrong. More's own
present what appears to
be a good society until the
work does not describe a perfect society by any definition of perfect that
reader leams of some flaw I can find. In English "perfect" refers to something finished, complete,
that raises questiona about
the basis for its cim to unchanging, and Utopia certainly does not fit that definition. I also
be a good society, or even believe that More, as a good Christian, could not imagine a "perfect"
turns it into a dystopia. The
flawed utopia tenda to invade society; the sinful nature of the human race would preclude that. And
territory already occupied by there are very few utopias in the corpus that can reasonably be described
the dystopia, the anti-utopia,
and the criticai utopia and as "perfect," and most of those are in some version of heaven.
dystopia. The flawed utopia
is a sub-type that can exist
If we look more closely at the issue, we can see that there are two
within any of these sub- possible versions of perfection, perfect people and a perfect society. In
genres.
both cases, the dominant tendency within utopianism is against these
Intentional community: a
group of five or more adults
types of perfection.
and their children, if any, who The flaw in the presumably perfect has deep roots in utopianism.
come from more than one
nuclear family and who have Aristophanes (448?-380? BCE), the first great anti-utopian, presents
chosen to live together to this argument in his Ecclesiazusae ar Women in Parliament (393 BCE)
enhance their shared values
or for some other mutually where a group of women take over the legislative assembly and enact
agreed upon purpose. The a form of communism. Their legislation fails not because it is bad
temi appears to have been
first used in the 1940s. but because the human race is not capable of the required altruism.
With the exception of ''critical
dystopia", these definitions
Aristophanes made a similar point in Platus (388 BCE) where the
are from my "The Three Faces blind god of wealth is given sight, whereupon he redistributes wealth to
of Utopianism Revisited".
Although I have used my own
the deserving. Human greed rapidly redistributes it again inequitably.
definition, "criticai dystopia" Given the importance of Christianity in the Western utopian tradition,
is based on Moylan's Scraps
of the Untainted Sky and it is hardly surprising that attempts to achieve perfection in this life
Baccolini's "Gender and are sometimes presented as failures. Medieval Christianity generally
Genre in the Feminist Criticai
Dystopias of Katharine reflected the position of St. Augustine (354-430) that life in this world
Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, was conditioned by the Fali and sin. As a result, the possibility of
and Octavia Butler." "Flawed
utopia" comes from my significant social improvement was limited at best, and much medieval
"The Problem of the 'Flawed
Utopia . Other definitional
utopianism was explicitly heretical (On heresy and utopianism, see, for
articles include Levitas, example, Moinar). No Christian can believe that perfection on this Earth
Poggioli, Quarta, Sawada, and
Suvin.
or in this life is possible before the Second Coming or the MWennium.
This did not stop thinkers from developing utopian imagery, but it had
2The first study of utopias
appears to be Ahlefeld (1704). to be displaced in some way, such as in the rediscovered Garden of
For overviews of utopian Eden, the Kingdom of Prester John, St. Brandan's Isle, or the like.
scholarship, see Stillman
(1990) and Widdicombe (1992). For the Christian, apparent perfection must be flawed or even a
delusion foisted upon unsuspecting people by Satan or the Antichrist.
For example, this is the explicit theme ofJames Blish's (1921-75)A Case
of Conscience (1958), where the planet is destroyed because its apparent
perfection must be the work of Satan.
The earliest modern example of a flawed utopia is Samuel

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 WHAT IS A UTOPIA?

Johnson's (1709-84) The Prince of Abissinia (1759), better known as

Rasselas, a title first used in 1787. The eutopia, Happy Valley, intended
to provide a perfect life for the children of an emperor, seems dull
to Rasselas, and he chooses to explore the world. While after many
adventures he concludes that the Happy Valley compares favorably to
the world, Johnson was one of the first to raise the issue of the potential
boredom faced by the inhabitants of a eutopia.
In contemporary science fiction, perfect people are usually
brought about through eugenics or, more recently, genetic manipulation.
The point is generally quite simple and harks back to the Christian
critique of utopianism. The "perfect people" fail because they inevitably
bring with them the taint of the past, an ineradicable "human nature"
(See Sargent 1975 and 1977), no longer called "sin" but that is implied,
and it ensures that human beings cannot be perfect. An example is
Robert Lieberman's (1941-) Perfict People (1986).
The other category, the imperfect society, occurs primarily in
the twentieth century because the imperfect perfection is most often
brought about by technology. H.G. Wells is an early twentieth-century
example of someone deeply ambivalent about the ability of science and
technology to bring about a better society (See Sargent 1984), and it is
a common theme in science fiction (See Sargent 1981). One example
is Michael Frayn's (1933-) A Very Private Life (1968), which presents a
highly developed technology that is intended to produce a eutopia but
results in a dystopia of complete personal isolation.
Another issue that should now be settled is whether utopias are
a Westem phenomenon or if there are nonwestern utopian traditions
that developed separately from the Western tradition. It is clear that
there are such traditions. Even if we include the Islamic tradition in the
West, there are such traditions in China and India. In fact, every culture
that has been examined with care by scholars has been shown to have a
utopian tradition to some degree.
But this brings us back to definitional questions and the tendency
to conflate utopia and utopianism. To what extent does something
have to resemble More's Utopia to be considered a utopia? Would we
recognize a utopia produced in a radically different culture as a utopia?
This forces us to ask, What is the essence of a utopia? To me, there are
two central aspects of a utopia, both of which must be there. First, the
society described must not edst; second, the author must in some way
evaluate that society.
But authors sometimes challenge even these most basic
characteristics. Most utopias are located in time and space to provide
verisimilitude, to make our suspension of disbelief more willing. For
example, More's Utopia and most early post-More utopias were located

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LYMAN TOWER SARGENT

in relatively unexplored areas of earth. Later, utopias were placed in

the future but with a defined past that led to that future. With the
development of science fiction as a genre within which utopias were
published, the direct connection to the past often became more tenuous,
but throughout the history of the utopian genre, most utopias have been
non-existent but closely connected to some reality.
And given the importance of satire within the utopian genre,
the fact that most utopias are evaluative turns out to be not as simple a
point as might first appear (On satire, see Elliott). Again, More led the
way. What are we to make of a country called No Place with a major
river called No Water? And scholars still disagree fundamentally over
what institutions of Utopia, if any, More meant to be taken seriously.
Did Saint Thomas More really belief in euthanasia? Also, one person's
eutopia may well be another's dystopia. For example, B.F. Skinner's
(1904-90) Walden Two (1948) clearly describes what Skinner and many
others saw to be a eutopia but which many critics saw as a dystopia.
What then can we conclude regarding the question asked in my
title? It seems to me that the reality of actual utopias and utopianism
force us to accept that one term does not fit ali, that scholarship must be
much more careful about the terms used than has been the case in the
past. In particular, scholars need to stop using the words "perfect" and
ll
perfection" in connection with utopias.
There is a utopian literary genre, but it has many parts, and
authors continue to push at whatever porous boundaries scholars want
to put around the genre. There is also a phenomenon that can be called
utopianism that appears to be universal and again has many parts, many
ways it is expressed.
Thus, scholars must be very careful to be explicit about what they
are studying, what aspects of utopianism interest them, what part of the
utopian literary genre the works that interests them belongs to. Thomas
More provided us with a complex text that still defies agreement. We
should honor More by recognizing the complex, many-faceted legacy
that has grown from his original play on words.

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 WHAT IS A UTOPIA?

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