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The Fallacies of an Utopian Society
The analysis of Dostoevsky’s anti-utopian approach is highly observed and mentioned in Notes from the Underground text. While being perceived as the most critical source of contemporary dystopia, the underground man has attained a prominence of detachment in a systematically standardized world (Wanner 77).[1] The notion of an ideal utopian society is mentioned by Dostoevsky as awareness of Russia’s gradually originating left-wing extremists, who foreshadowed a likely change in the zeitgeist. Alterations in the overall cultural and ideological environment of the era. Utopia is traditionally referred to as – an anticipated state of reality and a non-existent place to be imagined (Rosenfeld 52).[2] Dystopia, in this regard, highly depends on utopia as a reflective image of the original and cannot exist without it, meanwhile, it is designed to rethink the foundations of utopia based on the denial of an ideal world (Kobaish 62).[3] Within this context, Dostoevsky had suggested that the idea of a rational and systematically organized utopian civilization would predictably lead to a potential dystopian society.
Free Will Over a Scientific Positivism
Dostoevsky has written the Notes from the Underground primarily as a response to Nikolay Chernyshevskiy’s novel What is to be Done? Which presented a highly preserved utopian optimism and positivity (Wanner 79)[1]. Dostoevsky thought of Chernyshevsky’s take on systematically created social enthusiasm as materialistically centralized, fabricating simulated and false freedom. Accordingly, Dostoevsky’s underground man demonstrates the twisted consciousness of a personality impacted by and rebelling against the effects of philosophical materialism (79)[1]. Reasonably fearing the denial and dismissal of free will in the name of scientific positivism, the underground man refuses to succumb to beautiful theories that promise idealistic premises. In particular, the underground man rejects a society that is based on perfectly mathematical equations, such as “two times two makes four,” as even though it is an image of the law of nature, man as he points out, loses a sense of his will by blindly submitting to methodical rules (80)[1].
Art as the Only Source of Utopia
For Dostoevsky, the utopian and idealistic images should be analyzed merely through artwork. Art should reveal the ideal of utopian appearance in accordance with a current and contemporary world, where utopian ideas seem impractical. This means that artwork ought to offer images of utopia, but even then, it must be admitted and acknowledged that they are invented and solely fictional (Price 346)[4]. As such, art should be perceived exclusively as a piece of social interest and not be mixed with socioeconomic and political realms.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Wanner, Adrian (1997). "The Underground Man as Big Brother: Dostoevsky's and Orwell's Anti-Utopia". Utopian Studies. vol. 8, no. 1: pp. 77-88.CS1 maint: extra text (link)
- ↑ Rosenfeld, Aaron S. (2020). Character and Dystopia: The Last Men. New York: Taylor and Francis, Milton. ISBN 9780367823108.
- ↑ Kobaish, Mohammed (2019). "The Legend of the Great Inquisitor as the Anti-Utopian Pioneering Work and the Novel "We"". Al-Adab Journal. vol. 1, no. 130: 61–68.
- ↑ Price, Zachary (2001). "Lukács, Dostoevsky, and the Politics of Art: Utopia in The Theory of the Novel and The Brothers Karamazov". The Slavic and East European Journal. vol. 45, no. 2: 343–352.