Dystopia as a subversion of Utopia: Upamanyu Chatterjee’s Novels

Abstract

Resistance to a Utopian world is often seen in most of the works in Modern fiction. The complicated relationship between the ideal and the real becomes a source of argument for and against the genre Utopia or even Dystopia. In the recent times one can find a rise in the publication of dystopian novels. Although there is evidence to prove that it is a twentieth-century phenomenon, it is interesting that the genre seems to grow stronger day after day. This article explores dystopia as a subversion of Utopia in the selected novels of Upamanyu Chatterjee, The English August: An Indian Story, The Mammaries of the Welfare State, The Last Burden, Way to Go, Weight Loss.