Text and Pre-Texts in Le Guin's "the New Atlantis" (Critical Essay‪)‬

The narrative structure and the major theme of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The New Atlantis" are determined by its allusions to two major prior texts. One of them is rather obvious, the other not so obvious at all, but neither has been explored as yet in terms of its relation to Le Guin's story, and one has not been noticed. Understanding these two sets of allusions, however, helps explain the logic behind the structural problems the story presents. Those problems arise from the oscillation between texts, typographically distinguished, describing on the one hand a realistically presented dystopian America set in a future Portland, Oregon, and on the other a fantastic vision of an island rising from the depths of the sea somewhere in the South Atlantic or the Western Pacific (Le Guin 336). The problem is where exactly that island comes from and what the narrative about it has to do with the more realistic narrative. In an era when critical attention about fiction, even science fiction, has been concentrated on the novel, Le Guin's short fiction has managed to attract considerable notice; this is especially true of "The New Atlantis." As to any allusions involved, the critics so far have all agreed in general terms on the obvious reference to the Atlantis myth, but none seems to have seen beyond that. Thematically, most critics from Darko Suvin to Elizabeth Cummins have sought to place the story in the context of Le Guin's exploration during the 1970s of the concept of utopia.