E X T E N S I O N UTOPIAS Utopias are imaginary worlds. The term utopia comes from the Greek ou (not) and topos (place). It means no place , nowhere . In literature it refers to novels which describe a better world. In this case, they are commonly called eutopias (from the Greek eu, good ). In eutopias everything is good and society is perfect. On the contrary, novels which describe a negative world are generally called dystopias. Dystopian novels write about imaginary, dreadful1 worlds where the negative aspects of society have led to2 catastrophic consequences. A lot of authors have written books where utopian societies are described. Jonathan Swift, with his Gulliver s Travels, is one of them. The first famous example of a utopian book was Thomas More s Utopia, written in 1516. This describes the story of Raphael Hythlodaeus, an imaginary traveller who goes to a wonderful country called Utopia. But Thomas More also presents some problems: individual liberty and individual initiative3 are not accepted Thomas More and people have to wear identical clothes and live in identical homes. The land of Utopia is more like a totalitarian4 state than a land of freedom and happiness. The idea of writing books about unreal worlds was not new to Thomas More. He was inspired5 by Plato s Republic (38070 B.C.), which describes an ideal society. In 1872, Samuel Butler wrote Erewhon. He tells the story of the narrator s journey to the country of Erewhon (Erewhon is anagram of Nowhere). Erewhon is similar to Gulliver s Travels, because imaginary journeys are used to criticize and Samuel Butler satirize contemporary society. 1. dreadful: very bad, terrible. 2. led to: caused. 3. initiative: the ability to decide and act by yourself. 4. totalitarian: a system of government where one political party has complete power over the people. 5. inspired: given the idea of something. 37