Besides a major structural convention of the utopian genre such as the oneiric travel back in time, Chilton introduces a feature of the Gothic novel, that is the manuscript entrusted to the Editor, and a typical element of the sentimental novel, namely the love-affair between Jones and the female guide. Industrial, capitalist regime and Anglo-Saxon imperialism, a «law of Nature» subjecting «lesser breeds without the law,» are compared with the ethos of a secluded, unsophisticated microcosm as pure as an Eden. Vania is an arcadia rooted in the fairy tale and maintained through eugenics, vegetarianism and strict decency. However, naiveté and conventional social patterns ambiguously contradict the emphasis on a balance between refrain and spontaneity. Chilton’s patriarchal attitude towards a feminine ideal stereotypically constructed on modesty, emotion and vanity as well as his attack to the Divorce Courts and to birth control sponsored by the Intelligentsia mark his views as reactionary. Since a «woman’s all, her fulfilment,» lies in the free choice of a husband for procreation, a pregnant wife is regarded as «a vessel of birth, not of delight,» while a sterile one is an outcast. By offering an idealized view of life reduced to its simplest terms, his regressive utopia removes social upheaval and conflict. His revival of an archetypal communalist society, the repository of ancient customs, undermines a historicist concept of human progress; Kaspar the Piper symbolizes the utopian nomothete who rejects any dialectical process; he is the eternal guardian of a «genuine pastoral» fixed in its un-developing origin and inhabited by clones rather than by individuals.
The Lost Children (1931)
SPINOZZI, Paola
2000
Abstract
Besides a major structural convention of the utopian genre such as the oneiric travel back in time, Chilton introduces a feature of the Gothic novel, that is the manuscript entrusted to the Editor, and a typical element of the sentimental novel, namely the love-affair between Jones and the female guide. Industrial, capitalist regime and Anglo-Saxon imperialism, a «law of Nature» subjecting «lesser breeds without the law,» are compared with the ethos of a secluded, unsophisticated microcosm as pure as an Eden. Vania is an arcadia rooted in the fairy tale and maintained through eugenics, vegetarianism and strict decency. However, naiveté and conventional social patterns ambiguously contradict the emphasis on a balance between refrain and spontaneity. Chilton’s patriarchal attitude towards a feminine ideal stereotypically constructed on modesty, emotion and vanity as well as his attack to the Divorce Courts and to birth control sponsored by the Intelligentsia mark his views as reactionary. Since a «woman’s all, her fulfilment,» lies in the free choice of a husband for procreation, a pregnant wife is regarded as «a vessel of birth, not of delight,» while a sterile one is an outcast. By offering an idealized view of life reduced to its simplest terms, his regressive utopia removes social upheaval and conflict. His revival of an archetypal communalist society, the repository of ancient customs, undermines a historicist concept of human progress; Kaspar the Piper symbolizes the utopian nomothete who rejects any dialectical process; he is the eternal guardian of a «genuine pastoral» fixed in its un-developing origin and inhabited by clones rather than by individuals.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
