Colliding Utopian and Dystopian Worlds: Revising Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Ahmed K. Towfik’s Utopia

Abstract

The article discusses two symptomatic texts that are imbricated within the utopian/dystopian ambience: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik. The style and structure of the selected novels are revealed at the level of the chronotope and aimed at clarifying the correlation of genre-forming components within the triad of a ‘person – civilisation – society’. This paper tests a hypothesis that the discursive representation of these components in a narrative structure is realised through colliding utopian and dystopian worlds. Problematising this idea in fiction reveals how the tension between the diametrically opposed worlds promotes critical scrutiny of both to draw attention to the most pressing social problems facing humanity: the role of ordinary people in society, impact of mass media on public opinion, dissolution of morals, social disparity, drug addiction, etc. The study primarily follows a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach to exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of utopian/dystopian worldviews in the literary dimension. The dichotomy of utopia/dystopia manifests in the novels through the overt conflict of different patterns of life, mentalities, and cultures. Analysing the ways of a literary embodiment of this conflict in Bradbury’s and Towfik’s books explicates how creating a new reality from utopian/dystopian perspectives alters consciousness and promotes a completely different paradigm of existence.