到2016年,《烏托邦》及其開創的烏托邦文學傳統已有500周年。作為反烏托邦的經典著作之一,《美妙的新世界》對于烏托邦愿景在20世紀的翻轉影響巨大。既往評論對該作品的開創意義探討頗多,但卻鮮有探討其與英國文化批評傳統的承繼關系。19世紀以來,社會轉型帶來的文化焦慮和應對這種焦慮的文化努力便一直影響著英國的文化生產。將《美妙的新世界》置于這個框架內來看,該作品可被視為赫胥黎對英國文化批評傳統的核心內涵"共同體形塑"和"愿景描述"的拓展,體現了20世紀初社會轉型加速的新背景下,英國知識分子對其所秉承的文化價值觀能否應對新挑戰的反思和迷惘。

2016 marked the 500 anniversary of Utopia and the literary tradition it pioneered. Brave New World, often considered an archetypal dystopian novel, played a key role in materializing the overturn of Utopian vision in the 20 th century. While past criticism tends to focus on its significance of opening a new trend, its relationship with the tradition of British cultural criticism remains largely neglected. From the 19 th century on, the anxiety brought about by social transition and the efforts to cope with such anxiety have been influencing Britain’s cultural production. Put within this context, Brave New World may be read as Huxley’s efforts to reflect on the traditional core concepts of community building and vision description upheld by past British intellectuals, revealing his perplexity at whether those long-cherished cultural values still have the power to cope with the new challenges arising in the early 20 th century.