Variations on the dystopian

William James, Ursula Le Guin, and Bernard Wolfe

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2024..45-54

Keywords:

Ursula K. Le Guin, Bernard Wolfe, William James, dystopia, utopia

Abstract

For over a century now, dystopian visions of the future have been an integral part of the strategies through which literature reacts to changes in the world. However, dystopia is not always an entirely new world. Sometimes, it is an element in a world born from a utopian impulse. The article explores the variations of the dystopian in two such worlds influenced by the works of William James: Bernard Wolfe's Limbo and in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. The analysis adopts the concept of dystopia as utopia’s shadow, and traces the moments when the world, the body, and the language of the Utopian begin to waver and transform into the voice of the Dystopian.

Author Biography

  • Vladimir Poleganov

    Vladimir Poleganov is a writer, translator, and screenwriter. He is the author of one collection of short stories, The Deconstruction of Thomas S (2013), and the novels The Other Dream (2016), which won the Helikon Award in 2017, and Past Continuous (2024; with Alexander Chobanov). He has translated into Bulgarian novels by writers, such as Thomas Pynchon, George Saunders, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Octavia E. Butler, Peter Beagle, Thomas Savage, and Ted Chiang. His academic interests focus on the study of the literature of the fantastic.

References

Le Guin, U. (2013). Realno i nerealno. Bard.

Clayes, G. (2017). Dystopia: A natural history. Oxford University Press.

Clayes, G. (2013). Three variants on the concept of dystopia. In Vieira, F. (Ed.), Dystopia(n) matters: On the page, on screen, on stage. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Foucault, M. (2006). Utopian body. In Jones, C. A. (Ed.), Sensorium: Embodied experience, technology and contemporary art. The MIT Press.

James, W. (1895). Is life worth living? International Journal of Ethics, 6(1). Retrieved February 10, 2024, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/2375309?seq=11.

James, W. (n.d.). Proposing the moral equivalent of war. Lapham’s Quaterly. Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/proposing-moral-equivalent-war

Kumar, K. (2013). Utopia’s shadow. In Vieira, F. (Ed.), Dystopia(n) matters: On the page, on screen, on stage. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Seed, D. (1997). Deconstructing the body politic in Bernard Wolfe’s “Limbo”. Science Fiction Studies, 24(2).

Wolfe, B. (2016). Limbo. Gollancz.

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Published

2025-11-06

Issue

Vol. 10 (2024)

Section

I. Dystopia Traditions, Genre Dynamics, Directions of Transformation

License

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How to Cite

Variations on the dystopian: William James, Ursula Le Guin, and Bernard Wolfe. (2025). Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 10, 45-54. https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2024..45-54