Human Nature in Utopia: Zamyatin's We

by Brett Cooke

Anticipating some Soviet Union developments, Evgenii Zamyatsin's We (1920) is a futuristic dystopic novel in which D-503, builder of the first rocket ship, extols the glories of the Single State and discovers another way of life beyond his highly controlled society. From the newer field of biopoetics, which applies evolutionary psychology to art instead of emphasizing the social construction of human behavior and consciousness, Cooke (Texas A&M U.) explores themes in the novel including workforce mechanization, the symbolic roles of food-sharing, eugenics, and writing as subversion. Comparisons are made with other dystopian literature (e.g. Brave New World ), and novels by Russian authors including Solzhenitsyn and Tolstoy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

216 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a book on evolutionary psychology in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, it's a somewhat niche piece of work - but well-written, nonetheless.

[Shayan Foroozesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cooke case is an illustration of a general dictum I read decades ago and that has been confirmed by my experience since then: most books should be articles; most articles should be footnotes; and most footnotes should not be written. But with all the redundancy, diffusion, and repetition, the book was insightful and gave me some food for thought.