If a certain degree of tension and ambiguity can be seen as inherent in the utopian model as such, it is also clear that much of the complex and contradictory character of the utopian fictions of the Renaissance is a direct reflection of the ideological ferment of the period in which they were written. Indeed, the intellectual exercise of projecting a more desirable alternative to the society of the day often has the effect of highlighting precisely those aspects of Renaissance thinking that are most ambivalent and fraught with contradiction. In an era where new and potentially revolutionary ideas co-exist with a powerful commitment to tradition, the utopian vision, offering the promise of stability while at the same time implying the desirability of change, almost inevitably exposes gaps and disjunctures—the points where conflicting impulses become impossible to reconcile.

That not only the utopian dream of order as such, but also the characteristic narrative paradigm associated with it should survive into the modern era raises a number of issues with regard to the relation between ideology and form. While the endurance of the utopian impulse itself requires little explanation—so long as society remains imperfect, more perfect alternatives will always have an appeal—the persistence of so many specific features of the Renaissance utopia, in terms both of content and form, is less easy to account for. Obviously, there is the question of direct influence to consider: in many cases later writers are clearly aware of, and respond to the example of their predecessors; nevertheless, as we shall see, that example is one which becomes increasingly problematic with the passage of time.

To begin with, it is clear that the writer of utopian fiction at the close of the nineteenth century (which sees the first major flowering of utopian fiction since the Renaissance) is faced with a radically different relationship between text and context. That dramatic changes in the nature of society are likely to dictate changes in the nature of the alternatives envisaged to it goes without saying: a utopia designed to resolve problems of scarcity in a pre-industrial economy will clearly differ radically from one which addresses issues arising from the contradictions of industrial capitalism and the organizational needs of a mass society.