Realism and utopia: a shifting disharmony

Abstract

The essay presents a concise historical overview of the utopian tradition, focused on its relation with political realism. This has always been a complex and shifting relation, both for the conceptual richness and for the variety of literary works that it has produced, especially as far as the long history of the utopian genre – from classical antiquity to the XXth century – is considered. Since the publication of More’s work, «utopia» serves several purposes: in addition to the original task of designing the optimal form of state, it conveys eschatological hope, disseminates the products of modern scientific and philosophical investigation, plans reformist and revolutionary projects, drafts practical experiments of building an ideal community.