Book
Zukunft ohne Angst
Isabella Hermann
Oekom Verlag
2025
All
Purchasable
DE
Theory
Isabella Hermann, political scientist and science fiction analyst, identifies in "Zukunft ohne Angst" a third literary genre alongside utopia and dystopia: the anti-dystopia. This is her central concept.
Utopias envision perfect but ultimately unreachable worlds — and have historically tended toward the totalitarian. Dystopias, by contrast, which are massively booming today, can according to psychological research trigger fear and defensive responses that lead to inaction and fatalism.
The anti-dystopia pushes back against this: its characters demonstrate a sense of justice, solidarity, and a belief in the possibility of positive change, even in the midst of the gravest challenges. Hermann's key reference work is Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" — a story in which no completed utopia is achieved, but through concrete, often contradictory action, real improvements nonetheless emerge.
The core arguments in brief:
- Dystopias paralyze us — they are culturally dominant but psychologically counterproductive
- Classical utopias have become naive and exclusionary
- Anti-dystopias open a third path: the capacity to act from within crisis, without promising perfection
- Change can be narrated — not as a solution, but as a process
Utopias envision perfect but ultimately unreachable worlds — and have historically tended toward the totalitarian. Dystopias, by contrast, which are massively booming today, can according to psychological research trigger fear and defensive responses that lead to inaction and fatalism.
The anti-dystopia pushes back against this: its characters demonstrate a sense of justice, solidarity, and a belief in the possibility of positive change, even in the midst of the gravest challenges. Hermann's key reference work is Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" — a story in which no completed utopia is achieved, but through concrete, often contradictory action, real improvements nonetheless emerge.
The core arguments in brief:
- Dystopias paralyze us — they are culturally dominant but psychologically counterproductive
- Classical utopias have become naive and exclusionary
- Anti-dystopias open a third path: the capacity to act from within crisis, without promising perfection
- Change can be narrated — not as a solution, but as a process