Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed is of interest to political
theorists partly because of its association with anarchism and
partly because it is thought to represent a turning point in the
history of utopian/dystopian political thought and literature and
of science fiction. Published in 1974, it marked a revival of
utopianism after decades of dystopian writing. According to this
widely accepted view The Dispossessed represents a new kind of
literary utopia, which Tom Moylan calls a "critical utopia." The
present work challenges this reading of The Dispossessed and its
place in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science
fiction. It explores the difference between traditional literary
utopia and novels and suggests that The Dispossessed is not a
literary utopia but a novel about utopianism in politics. Le Guin's
concerns have more to do with those of the novelists of the 19th
century writing in the tradition of European Realism than they do
with the science fiction or utopian literature. It also claims that
her theory of the novel has an affinity with the ancient Greek
tragedy. This implies that there is a conservatism in Le Guin's
work as a creative writer, or as a novelist, which fits uneasily
with her personal commitment to anarchism.
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