Beyond Utopia
Year: 2022
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This chapter examines the vision of Paris in Jules Verne’s dystopian fiction titled “Paris in the Twentieth Century” (or The Lost Novel). Written in the 1960s, this futuristic novel is a description of Paris during the twentieth century with technological predictions. The latter include electric streetlights, gas-powered vehicles driven on asphalt roads, computers, fax machines, and the electric chair, among many others. The novel is also the story of Michel Jérôme Dufrénoy, a student of literature and an aspiring poet and dramatist, who lives in this high-tech world where arts and creativity have fallen into a state of terminal idleness. This chapter discusses the transition from utopia to dystopia in “Paris in the Twentieth Century”, the impact of technological advances on society, and the emergent dangers of a utilitarian culture, as well as the philistine culture of capitalism. We conclude that “Paris in the Twentieth Century” is an anti-utopian fiction that depicts the dark, dystopian, and depressive world in which we currently live.
Source: Lexington Books
Author: Murielle El Hajj
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409935680