The book focuses on different uses of the concepts of utopia, dystopia, and anti-utopia. The author analyses literature, cinema, and rock music, as well as scientific and legal motifs in utopian fiction. He also considers the functions of Jewish characters in early modern utopias and looks at the utopian aspects of scientific claims of literary and cultural theories. Utopian models are also applied to the practice of literature (socialist realism) and current socio-political affairs. Among the texts and films discussed are "Utopia", "New Atlantis", "Gulliver¿s Travels", "Memoirs of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca", "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "A Minor Apocalypse", "Lord of the Flies", and "Even Dwarfs Started Small".

Artur Blaim is Professor of English Literature at the University of Gdäsk. He is the author of «Gazing in Useless Wonder. English Utopian Fiction 1516¿1800» (2013) and «Robinson Crusoe and His Doubles» (2016). He has co-edited several volumes on utopian/dystopian fiction and cinema like «Spectres of Utopia. Theory, Practice, Conventions» (2012) and «Mediated Utopias» (2015). His main research interests include utopia/dystopia in literature, film and other media, William Shakespeare, cultural semiotics, and desert island narratives.

Utopian fiction - Utopianism - Literary utopias and dystopias - Filmic utopias and dystopias - Anti-utopia - Rock lyrics - Jewish characters in literature - Scientific motifs in literature - "Utopia" - "New Atlantis" - "Gulliver's Travels" - Thomas More - Francis Bacon - William Shakespeare - George Orwell - William Golding - Tadeusz Konwicki