The paper analyzes Mór Jókai’s The Novel of the Century to Come from the viewpoint
of the local aspects of cultural embeddedness of the complex and competing utopian
discourses. The whole novel describes a future in which, after difficult struggles,
a globally united and perfect society is created. However, two different small-scale
utopias are also described; one of them (Otthon) is located in Europe and shows traits
of the national-capitalist dream; the other (Kin-Tseu) is imagined to be in Central
Asia and presented first from the perspective of Chinese historical sources, in a
form similar to a colonialist pornotopia. Then an omniscient narrator proves that
the Chinese image of Kin-Tseu is false, and presents it as it “really” is. This latter
utopia solicits an ecocritical reading, since its basic problem, i.e. the sustainability
of a growing population in a closed environment, is crucial for current ecocriticism.
The experimentation with various (including Western and Eastern) utopian traditions
functions as a unique poetic feature in Jókai’s novel.
