DYSTOPIA, UTOPIA, AND ANTHROPOLOGY ON THE CROSSROAD
Research Article
DYSTOPIA, UTOPIA, AND ANTHROPOLOGY ON THE CROSSROAD
ABSTRACT
Krotz (2018) argues that the interest in different societies and therefore, the variety of forms of
organizing human life are shared by, what seem to be distinctive forms of knowledge, anthropology
and utopia. According to him, the category of alterity is what brings them closer and makes them
complement each other. This paper looks into the similarities between the dystopian literary genre and
cultural anthropology. It does so, by looking at some of the contemporary problems that cultural
anthropology treatsand the themes of dystopian literature. The origins of the dystopian novel go back to
around 1880s, marked by the strong intervention of sciences in human life. Most of these dystopian
novels, talk about the perils of technology, technocracy and its controlling power. It is interesting to
analyze then, that much of the contemporary problems that anthropology deals with in the 21st century,
fall within the realm of dystopian literature. The rising trend of new dystopian novels can offer
foundations for a vision, whereby dystopian literature can serve as a warehouse of topics from which
social anthropology can borrow in its active engagement with contemporary global issues and the new
human condition. Comparing the motives of dystopian literature, its questioning of the moral and
human aspects of war, science, violence, technology, etc, with the most recent issues that contemporary
cultural anthropology deals with will be the primary focus of this paper. The aim to show the strengths
of this interdisciplinarity for a critical grasp of the contemporary human condition, underpins this work.
MUHIć, M.,
(2021). DYSTOPIA, UTOPIA, AND ANTHROPOLOGY ON THE CROSSROAD. International Journal of Education and Philology, 2(2), 77-83. Arrival Date Posted By:https://ijep.ibupress.com/articles/dystopia-utopia-and-anthropology-on-the-crossroad
