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Emile Souvestre's Anti-Utopia: Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera

Emile Souvestre's Anti-Utopia: Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera Le Monde tel qu'il sera (1846) is an interesting blend of extrapolation and I Taking as his subject human society in the year 3,000 Souvestre social criticism. presents an indictment of industrialism, a warning that increasing material pro­ gress will produce neither pleasure nor fulfilment but rather a heartless society whose members are concerned exclusively with their own self-interest. 2 Souves­ tre wishes to unsettle his contemporaries by casting doubt on the validity of their belief in the inevitability of infinite progress. To this end he imagines a dystopia, an anti-utopia in which the disastrous consequences of unrestrained technological advance are made manifest. 3 The future emerges as an oppressive world in which the workers are exploited, deliberately dehumanised by their masters who own the means of production and control the institutions of the state. The narrative conventions of utopian fiction are employed to give the story shape. Two representatives of contemporary society, Maurice and Marthe, are transported into the future. There is no plot as such: we simply accompany the young couple over a period of two days as they investigate various aspects of the future world. Maurice and Marthe embody the human qualities which are under threat http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nottingham French Studies Edinburgh University Press

Emile Souvestre's Anti-Utopia: Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera

Crossley, Ceri
Nottingham French Studies , Volume 24 (2): 28 – Jan 1, 1985
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© 1985 Nottingham French Studies
ISSN
0029-4586
eISSN
2047-7236
DOI
10.3366/nfs.1985-2.003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Le Monde tel qu'il sera (1846) is an interesting blend of extrapolation and I Taking as his subject human society in the year 3,000 Souvestre social criticism. presents an indictment of industrialism, a warning that increasing material pro­ gress will produce neither pleasure nor fulfilment but rather a heartless society whose members are concerned exclusively with their own self-interest. 2 Souves­ tre wishes to unsettle his contemporaries by casting doubt on the validity of their belief in the inevitability of infinite progress. To this end he imagines a dystopia, an anti-utopia in which the disastrous consequences of unrestrained technological advance are made manifest. 3 The future emerges as an oppressive world in which the workers are exploited, deliberately dehumanised by their masters who own the means of production and control the institutions of the state. The narrative conventions of utopian fiction are employed to give the story shape. Two representatives of contemporary society, Maurice and Marthe, are transported into the future. There is no plot as such: we simply accompany the young couple over a period of two days as they investigate various aspects of the future world. Maurice and Marthe embody the human qualities which are under threat

Journal

Nottingham French Studies – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1985

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