The manifold cities envisioned in Victorian literature testify to the concern for the destiny of industrial civilization after the crisis of capitalism which culminated in the Great Depression (1873-1896). In utopian writings the creative talent displayed in the representation of the city as it is interweaves with the speculative effort to imagine the city as it should or should not be. The urban utopian imagery gathers momentum through the exposition of prophecies which unfold the outcome of the Age of Machine and the ultimate destiny of humankind after the destruction of the industrial civilization. I. The progressist utopias published in the decades between 1880 and 1900 provide a rich archive of projects which will be developed during the twentieth century into the architectural theories of constructivism, and will take shape in Le Corbusier’s architectural plans. The progressist city model involves the erasure of history, as complete reconstruction can be enacted only through the disappearance and oblivion of the past. The destruction of cultural and historic memory leads to new forms of urban planning where equalitarianism and social integration are rejected and discriminating principles such as class, race, religious creed are applied. The controversial connection between the progressist urban model and non equalitarian views can be demonstrated by taking into account Etymonia (1875), whose author is unknown, Three Hundred Years Hence (1880) by William Delisle Hay, and Meda, a Tale of the Future. As Related by Kenneth Folingsby (1891). These minor utopias exploit the genre of tale of the future for imagining futuristic cities constructed not only on technological advancement, but also on eugenics. When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) by H.G. Wells reveals a more problematic view of the progressist city. Wells oscillates between the fascination of the metropolis transformed by the prodigies of technology and a deep concern for the danger of alienation which constantly threatens citizens. II. Historicism is sustained by the utopian writers who believe that the elaboration of new cities cannot proceed from the eradication of old models, as this would involve the neglect of the history of civilization which is transmitted through them. In News from Nowhere (1890) William Morris depicts a post-industrial era characterised by a return to pre-industrial England. The idea of organic art and architecture, on which the Gothic revival is based, will be reworked in twentieth-century experiments on an integrated model of city and country: though not rejecting technological progress, E. Howard and F.L. Wright emphasise man’s need to interact with nature. A more controversial attitude is expressed by W.H. Hudson in A Crystal Age (1887), where nature is crystallised in an edenic state: his perfect, pure, static, post-apocalyptic world is a disquieting Arcadia of the future, where the problem of the integration between nature and human history has been left unsolved. The maintenance of peace and harmony through the suppression of passion and sexual attraction transform Hudson’s model of agricultural community into a frozen pastoral pervaded by a sense of death. III. In the post-apocalyptic world depicted by Richard Jefferies in After London (1885), the capital city has been submerged beneath poisonous swamps generated by environmental calamities and, due to the survivors’ inability to employ technology, society has relapsed into barbarism. Through the utter destruction of urban civilisation Jefferies conveys a deep pessimism about the possibility of a future better world for humanity. Catastrophe is a rhetorical device which, by marking a strong divide between England before and after, allows the utopian author to choose between memory and oblivion, to decide how to rework Victorian social theories based on natural selection and Malthusianism in order to imagine how a futuristic world can revive the past, or remove it.
The Revival of the Past and the Tension towards the Future in the Urban Imagery of Victorian Utopias
SPINOZZI, Paola
2004
Abstract
The manifold cities envisioned in Victorian literature testify to the concern for the destiny of industrial civilization after the crisis of capitalism which culminated in the Great Depression (1873-1896). In utopian writings the creative talent displayed in the representation of the city as it is interweaves with the speculative effort to imagine the city as it should or should not be. The urban utopian imagery gathers momentum through the exposition of prophecies which unfold the outcome of the Age of Machine and the ultimate destiny of humankind after the destruction of the industrial civilization. I. The progressist utopias published in the decades between 1880 and 1900 provide a rich archive of projects which will be developed during the twentieth century into the architectural theories of constructivism, and will take shape in Le Corbusier’s architectural plans. The progressist city model involves the erasure of history, as complete reconstruction can be enacted only through the disappearance and oblivion of the past. The destruction of cultural and historic memory leads to new forms of urban planning where equalitarianism and social integration are rejected and discriminating principles such as class, race, religious creed are applied. The controversial connection between the progressist urban model and non equalitarian views can be demonstrated by taking into account Etymonia (1875), whose author is unknown, Three Hundred Years Hence (1880) by William Delisle Hay, and Meda, a Tale of the Future. As Related by Kenneth Folingsby (1891). These minor utopias exploit the genre of tale of the future for imagining futuristic cities constructed not only on technological advancement, but also on eugenics. When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) by H.G. Wells reveals a more problematic view of the progressist city. Wells oscillates between the fascination of the metropolis transformed by the prodigies of technology and a deep concern for the danger of alienation which constantly threatens citizens. II. Historicism is sustained by the utopian writers who believe that the elaboration of new cities cannot proceed from the eradication of old models, as this would involve the neglect of the history of civilization which is transmitted through them. In News from Nowhere (1890) William Morris depicts a post-industrial era characterised by a return to pre-industrial England. The idea of organic art and architecture, on which the Gothic revival is based, will be reworked in twentieth-century experiments on an integrated model of city and country: though not rejecting technological progress, E. Howard and F.L. Wright emphasise man’s need to interact with nature. A more controversial attitude is expressed by W.H. Hudson in A Crystal Age (1887), where nature is crystallised in an edenic state: his perfect, pure, static, post-apocalyptic world is a disquieting Arcadia of the future, where the problem of the integration between nature and human history has been left unsolved. The maintenance of peace and harmony through the suppression of passion and sexual attraction transform Hudson’s model of agricultural community into a frozen pastoral pervaded by a sense of death. III. In the post-apocalyptic world depicted by Richard Jefferies in After London (1885), the capital city has been submerged beneath poisonous swamps generated by environmental calamities and, due to the survivors’ inability to employ technology, society has relapsed into barbarism. Through the utter destruction of urban civilisation Jefferies conveys a deep pessimism about the possibility of a future better world for humanity. Catastrophe is a rhetorical device which, by marking a strong divide between England before and after, allows the utopian author to choose between memory and oblivion, to decide how to rework Victorian social theories based on natural selection and Malthusianism in order to imagine how a futuristic world can revive the past, or remove it.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
