Exploitation of the Natural World in Bulgarian Science Fiction Utopias and Dystopiasofthe Socialist Period

Abstract

The articleexamines the exploitation of the natural world and its individual consequences as they are presented in a number of utopian and dystopiannovels of Bulgarian science fiction during the socialist period. Attention is first given to the post-1956 scientificand technical utopias that depictthe future communist world. In these texts, nature is the enemy and victim of man; there are many scenes of ecocide and ofsevere industrialisation which changesnature’s landscapein accordance with theto human needs and desires. This exploitation is seen as positive andnecessary for the construction of the new human world.However, later,towards the end of the 1970s, Bulgarian science fiction began to develop a more ecological attitude towards nature. The exploitationof the natural world became something characteristic of dystopiantexts and the capitalist regimes described in them, albeit this time seen in its destructive aspect.