Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 2000–1887 (1888)

Decker, Christof (2018): Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 2000–1887 (1888). In: Gerhardt, Christine (Hrsg.): Handbook of the American Novel of the Nineteenth Century. Handbooks of English and American studies, Bd. 7. Berlin: De Gruyter. S. 474-489

Abstract

Published in the year 1888, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, 2000- 1887 created a unique blend of time travel narrative, romance, social(ist) critique, gothic anxiety, populism, technological progressivism, and utopian betterment that became an instant bestseller and an effective tool for political activism. This chapter discusses how Bellamy managed to bring together traditions of transcendentalist thinking with the social upheavals of the 1880s and the twin desires of greater equality concerning questions of democratic participation as well as greater efficiency in matters of social engineering. Juxtaposing the distressing contemporaneousness of the Gilded Age with a glorious future, the genius of Bellamy’s utopian vision lay in his ability to realign the political value and emotional power of equality with the desires of an emerging modern culture fuelled by dreams of technological ease, consumption, and the enjoyment of popular entertainment.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Fakultät: Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften > Department 3 > Amerikanistik
• Themengebiete: 400 Sprache > 420 Englisch, Altenglisch
• ISBN: 978-3-11-048132-7
• Ort: Berlin
• Sprache: Englisch