The future of utopias and dystopias in presentist times

Abstract

In this article, I try to answer some concerns raised by Patrícia Vieira’s article about the place of utopias and dystopias in the contemporary world. I underline the need to think of these historical categories based on the problems of historical consciousness and temporality from the perspective of Reinhart Koselleck, in order to locate contents and meanings emanating from these temporal representations. With Hayden White, I suggest the usefulness of evaluating the links between historical imagination and textual creation to connect the meaning of texts and social expectations. Finally, mobilizing the concept of presentism and the idea of closing the future, I try to understand this particular temporal experience of the beginning of millennium with the expansion of dystopias and the permanence of old and new utopias.

Keywords

• Utopia
• Dystopia
• Presentism