Hope in a World That Will Never End? The Problem of Fanatical Hope in Critical Dystopias

This chapter introduces the concept of fanatical hope to highlight the excessive and constant zealous search for hope, whether it exists or not. I draw from Thucydides’ understanding of hope as a negative, foolish, conception, and use fanatical hope to search for the possibly damaging and detrimental aspects of hope, focusing on the field of dystopian studies that have been, and maybe should remain, primarily hopeless and despairing. Dystopian thought, most widely linked to dystopian literature, holds a critical mirror up to society and questions the dominant societal and political norms through a futuristic setting. In relying on ambiguous endings, critical dystopias argue for hope. Reviewing key 20th and 21st century dystopias, the chapter argues that hope, especially in its Blochian form, should not dominate dystopian scholarship for two reasons. First, other conceptions of hope exist, both positive and negative. Second, the search for hope devolves to fanatical hope, which in turn detracts from the critical power inherent in these dystopias.