In this article, I examine Anthony Trollope’s futuristic fiction The Fixed Period (1882) to discuss how the author criticizes Victorian Britain’s general pursuit of national efficiency by depicting a seemingly utopian nation where euthanasia of old and less productive individuals is used as an expedient means of implementing utopian values. In reading how Period portrays aging as a sign not only of personal deterioration but also of social inefficiency, I situate the text in the late nineteenth-century context, in which euthanasia was viewed as a countermeasure against large-scale degeneration. It is necessary to note that Trollope’s interpretation of the future without decline—without the elderly—is satiric, for he indeed speaks about the present society, obsessed with the ideology of progress. That is, although Trollope locates the mandatory euthanasia system in the future, his portrayal of it as a pivotal means of national regeneration serves to problematize the late Victorian reality, in which people felt a need to increase the size of the young and efficient generation and decrease that of the old and inefficient generation in order to prevent collective degeneration. In exploring how Trollope’s depiction of the future illuminates the seamy side of utopian productivism, I therefore suggest that he debunks the myth of youth, efficiency, and progress, which governed Victorian Britain.

中文翻译：

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安东尼·特罗洛普《固定时期》中的老年与安乐死

在这篇文章中，我考察了安东尼·特罗洛普的未来主义小说《固定时期》（1882 年），以讨论作者如何通过描绘一个看似乌托邦的国家来批评维多利亚时代的英国对国家效率的普遍追求，在这个国家中，对年长和生产力较低的个体进行安乐死作为一种权宜之计践行乌托邦价值观。在阅读 Period 如何将衰老描述为不仅是个人恶化而且也是社会低效率的标志时，我将文本置于 19 世纪后期的背景下，在这种背景下，安乐死被视为对抗大规模退化的对策。有必要指出，特罗洛普对没有衰落的未来——没有老年人——的解释是讽刺的，因为他确实谈到了当今社会，痴迷于进步的意识形态。那是，尽管特罗洛普将强制安乐死制度定位在未来，但他将其描述为国家复兴的关键手段有助于解决维多利亚时代晚期的现实问题，在这种现实中，人们认为需要增加年轻高效一代的规模，减少老一代和低效率的一代，以防止集体退化。因此，在探索特罗洛普对未来的描绘如何阐明乌托邦式生产主义阴暗面时，我建议他揭穿统治维多利亚时代英国的青年、效率和进步的神话。其中人们认为需要增加年轻高效一代的规模，减少年老低效一代的规模，以防止集体退化。因此，在探索特罗洛普对未来的描绘如何阐明乌托邦式生产主义阴暗面时，我建议他揭穿统治维多利亚时代英国的青年、效率和进步的神话。其中人们认为需要增加年轻高效一代的规模，减少年老低效一代的规模，以防止集体退化。因此，在探索特罗洛普对未来的描绘如何阐明乌托邦式生产主义阴暗面时，我建议他揭穿统治维多利亚时代英国的青年、效率和进步的神话。