Utopian Literature Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In this article it will be analyzed the ideological articulation of gender and national aspects in three Catalan novels written during last Franco’s years and transition to democracy: M. A. Capmany’s Quim/Quima (1971), Ll. Villalonga’s Andrea Víctrix (1974), and M. A. Oliver’s El vaixell d’Iràs i no Tornaràs (1976). Capmany uses Woolf’s transhistorical motif of Orlando in order to recreate the facts that happened in Catalan lands with a hopeful thinking on future social, national and gender matters. Oliver reflects about liberty and totalitarianism basing on an ideological and stylistic working out, in which sexuality and May 1968 protests utopia are protagonists. On the other hand, Villalonga presents a world where ethical and gender duality’s paradigm has undergone a radical turn, that is to say, a dystopia that shows coexisting failed sexuality with political and moral decadence.

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- Gender Studies, Catalan Studies, Utopian Literature, Literatura catalana

Contemporary Paganism’s emphasis on sacred story and narrative has led to an interdependent relationship with popular media. Pagans draw inspiration from fiction and also bring their practices to life in popular novels. Robert Heinlein’s 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land has had a major impact on the practice of ethical nonmonogamy in the Pagan community, an impact that is reflected in Starhawk’s 1993 The Fifth Sacred Thing. Along with liturgical echoes from Stranger, Starhawk’s novel contains sacred sex practices similar to those Heinlein describes. Unlike Heinlein, however, Starhawk is writing from life; The Fifth Sacred Thing reflects the developing real-life norms of her San Francisco-based Pagan community. Both novels also follow the generic conventions of the American utopian novel, a literary form that has influenced communal and millennial movements of the past. Together, Heinlein and Starhawk’s novels demonstrate how fiction can inspire religious practice that then appears again in fiction.

- by Christine Hoff Kraemer
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- Religion and Sexuality, Pagan Studies, Science Fiction, Polyamory
- by Alex Meyers
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- Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, Utopia/dystopia

Sede di civiltà tecnologicamente avanzatissime e illuminate oppure luogo di provenienza di minacciosi estranei invasori, Marte rappresenta, da oltre un secolo, una alternativa alla Terra, un altro mondo sul quale proiettare le nostre speranze e le nostre paure. Da quando, nel Diciannovesimo secolo, gli astronomi Giovanni Schiaparelli e Percivall Lowell osservarono sulla superficie marziana quelli che ritennero essere una rete di canali artificiali, i sogni e gli incubi degli esseri umani sembrano aver conservato una speciale connessione con il Pianeta Rosso. "L’altra Terra" è la storia di questa connessione, la vicenda di un vero e proprio mito moderno capace di raccontare, nella letteratura e nel cinema, nella ricerca e nella scienza, i timori e le aspettative della nostra specie, piena di entusiasmo all’arrivo delle macchine, terrorizzata dall’incombenza della guerra nucleare o minacciata dalla natura che non sembra più obbedirle. Dai romanzi di Wells e Asimov ai primi film di fantascienza, dall’osservazione astronomica al progetto SpaceX con il quale Elon Musk prevede di fondare entro pochi anni la prima colonia umana su Marte, la storia raccontata in questo libro è, in fondo, la nostra stessa storia - quella, cioè, di un’umanità affascinata dal sogno di fuggire altrove, un sogno che oggi sembra finalmente prossimo a divenire realtà.

- by Daniele Porretta
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- Science Fiction, Utopian Literature, Astronomy, Utopia/dystopia
- by Fabrice Brandli
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- Animal Studies, Utopian Studies, Animals and Animality, Utopian Literature
- by Byron Kaldis
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- Semiotics, Law, Philosophy, Aesthetics

In 'Vloeibare tijden. Leven in een eeuw van onzekerheid' (2007) drukt Zygmunt Bauman een productie- en een houdbaarheidsdatum op de droom van Andersland: ‘Utopieën werden samen met de moderniteit geboren en alleen in de sfeer van de moderniteit konden ze ademen.’ De observatie van de Pools-Britse socioloog vormt het uitgangspunt van dit hoofdstuk. Eerst beschrijf ik het verband tussen de doorbraak van de vroege moderniteit en de verschijning van 'Utopia' (1516), de tekst waarmee Thomas More het genre uitvond en waarvan de titel zich tot een generische naam ontwikkelde. Vervolgens reconstrueer ik hoe de utopische verbeelding vanaf de vroege negentiende eeuw onder impuls van het romantische denken kwade faam verwierf en in de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw door enkele invloedrijke literaire nachtmerries of zogenoemde dystopieën in de verdrukking raakte. In het tweede deel van dit hoofdstuk onderzoek ik hoe in onze zogeheten late moderniteit een acute vorm van ademnood uitbrak in Andersland. Is er vandaag nog leven denkbaar op de plek waar de moderne mens zijn eigen paradijs zou oprichten?

- by Kevin Absillis
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- Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, Gated Communities, Utopia

This article looks in more depth at the different ways in which ideas about cashless societies were articulated and explored in pre-1900 utopian literature. Taking examples from the works of key writers such as Thomas More, Robert Owen, William Morris and Edward Bellamy, it discusses the different ways in which the problems associated with conventional notes-and-coins monetary systems were tackled as well as looking at the proposals for alternative payment systems to take their place. Ultimately, what it shows is that although the desire to dispense with cash and find a more efficient and less-exploitable payment system is certainly nothing new, the practical problems associated with actually implementing such a system remain hugely challenging.

- by Matthew Hollow
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- Entrepreneurship, Economic History, Communication, Globalization

Aunque política y ciencia constituyen hoy en día ramas casi antagónicas del conocimiento humano-acaso com-binables en ámbitos ficcionales como el cine y la litera-tura-, la relación entre filosofía política y astronomía es una constante histórica que alcanza especial fuerza en el pensamiento emancipatorio del siglo xix. El presente artículo sitúa en ese marco La eternidad por los astros (1872) y, asimismo, somete a contraste la peculiaridad retórica e ideológica de una obra en la que Louis-Auguste Blanqui propone una contigüidad entre orbe celeste y sociedad humana fundada, según él, en su análogo funcionamiento y su común atavismo.

- by Revista Co-herencia
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- Political Sociology, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Literature
- by Christian Rivoletti
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- German Studies, Comparative Literature, German Literature, Reception Studies

Review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

- by Sandra Piñón Gonzaga
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- Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Sociology, Mythology

Written in 1974, the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed revolves around the central character Shevek's self-appointed mission to improve the relationship between two planets, Anarres and Urras, by breaking down the walls that are separating these ideological enemies. The novel, in that sense, can be read as one man's search for an ideal state, rather than a description of a utopian/anti-utopian state. Literary scholars generally focus on various aspects of The Dispossessed in terms of its anarchist politics, ecological politics, and revolutionary politics. This article; however, aims to approach the novel from a Lacanian perspective by addressing the protagonist's psyche and his relation to the socio-symbolic orders in the novel. By focusing on the characterization of the relations between the subject and the other in an anarchist (as well as a capitalist culture) in The Dispossessed, this article aims to analyze how the novel provides a path towards an ideal state.

- by Murat Kabak
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- Dystopian Literature, Utopian Studies, Literary Theory, Jacques Lacan

O Último Europeu 2284 de Miguel Real ou a interrogação utópica sobre a nossa liberdade individual e colectiva O romance não cessa, enfim, de revestir novas formas e de exprimir novos conteúdos, numa singular manifestação da perene inquietude estética e espiritual do homem. V. M. de Aguiar e Silva, Teoria da Literatura (1999: 684). Orgulhávamo-nos do amplo progresso realizado numa dezena de anos, dotados de um plano moral excelente e dum um optimismo histórico muito sólido. (...) Prolongar e continuar a civilização dos nossos pais. Grande a responsabilidade, grande a vontade, óptimo o caminho percorrido.

- by Kalewska Anna
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- Utopian Literature, Novels

In Michel Jeury’s narratives, time travel is done by way of the psychic universe. The depiction of this mentalized time is influenced by quantum physics, which undermines time and thus, corrupts the narration. These processes come with the denunciation of totalitarian systems while questioning historical time. The latter translates into a particular stylistic use of colours, which also takes a political meaning. This poetics is coupled with the utopian dimension of Jeury’s work, a quest for “subjective eternity”.

- by Natacha Vas-Deyres
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- Science Fiction, Utopian Literature, Political Anticipation

The New Babylon and Plug-in city fictions, which marked the same period and were the beginning of some discussions, created two very different atmospheres for their users. Architects, who interpret the effects and movements of the period through different contexts, are among the fictions that have attracted attention with some similarities as well as their contrasts. Plug-in City can be given as a completely capitalist example, while New Babylon has a more socialist approach. The common aspects arising from these contrasts are the factors that made the two constructs strong. In this context, you can find the effect of the movements of the 60s on fiction, the social and structural consequences of these effects and other detail sub-topics in this article.

- by Ayşe Nur Çelik
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- Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, Utopianism, Utopias

In the book Woman’s Future: A Philosophical Treatise on Utopia and Feminism concepts of utopia and utopian thinking are brought into connection with feminist theories about the necessity of social transformation of gender relations and roles to create just societies. Utopian thinking as inherently human rests on the idea of a quest for freedom and happiness and, starting from the criticism of reality, builds mental constructs of better/ideal spatially or temporally distant societies. Speaking of utopian thinking we identified its three fundamental aspects: utopian critique, utopian hope and utopian imagination. Utopian critique is a form of criticism which finds the causes of societal problems in the flaws of social structure, i.e. social roles, relationships, systems and institutions. Utopian critique is closely related to the experience of injustice and discontent with the existing situation. Utopian hope is the hope that the existing situation can be changed and that the outcome of these changes will be good i.e. it will represent the abolition of existing social injustices and problems. The utopian imagination, in turn, refers to the ability to imagine the contours of these changes and their outcomes. Although we hold that the ability of utopian thinking is inherently human, and therefore independent of the historical moment, culture and civilization, its strength and manifestations however depend on the spirit of the times, they are subject to the processes of development as well as stagnation and suppression. In this regard, we discussed the contemporary crisis of utopia associating it with the notions of ideology and utopianism and finding that the potential of its reconstruction is incorporated into the formulation of the active i.e. critical utopia that is present in many social and political theories and movements.
Utopia was historically manifested through art, intentional communities, and political and social theory. In this book we were largely oriented towards utopian literature. Utopia’s content was primarily analysed from the perspective of the ways in which utopian author discusses the social position of women. Key issues were raised: did the creators of imaginary worlds build their qualitative difference with respect to existing situation by reflecting and changing social position of women and how did they achieve these changes? We have shown that in the classical utopias social position of women was often determined as non-problematic and therefore significant changes to it were not proposed. Moreover, it was argued that women were already living in their own utopia. Although the first major feminist ideas were observed in the works of utopian socialists, utopias that transcend existing reality by imagining a better one founded on equal social status of men and women were found only in works of feminist writers and theoreticians of the late 20th century. Feminist utopias as the only utopias in which the improvement of women's lives represents the most important (although not the only) criterion of achieving a better world and society are important in order to acquire insight into the historical development of feminist thought and to comprehend the development, reconstruction and transformation of utopian thought.

- by Ana Maskalan
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- Social Movements, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
- by SD Chrostowska
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- Utopian Studies, Bodies and Culture, Utopian Literature, Utopianism

In many patriarchal cultures, women have generally been equated with home: a private, safe and secure place, in which women function as the primary caregiver and nourisher for their husbands and child(ren). Those material and domestic roles implemented by men have gradually confined women into their homes in favor of magnifying and glorifying male desires; thereby, women cannot establish their sense of personal identity and freewill. Considering those issues, feminist scholars and writers have focused on the relation between home/space and the construction of gender roles and patriarchal ideologies. They struggle to show how women are oppressed and transformed into ‘docile bodies’ by those patriarchal private spheres. They, furthermore, seek to find the ways of de(con)structing the normative gender relations emanated from the spatial arrangement of houses and creating a new female space where women manifest their potential. Among those women is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a first-wave American feminist, activist and sociologist. Aiming to create an alternative, feminocentric world, Gilman wrote Herland (1915), one of the first women’s utopias of the twentieth century. It is an idealized space of female self-realization and social harmony. However, through the lens of today, Herland is far from being a peaceful matriarchal paradise. To the contrary, it is just a reproduction of patriarchal dictations and binary oppositions in an-all-female world. Hence, basing its arguments on recent discussions on the meaning of home in the contexts of gender-construction and feminist literary writing, this paper will focus on how even a female-oriented home can morph into a dystopian place and imprison women within the fixed and hierarchical structures of patriarchal discourse.

BELLAMY, Edward. "Olhando para Trás: 2000-1887". SP/Londrina: Aetia Editorial, 2021, p. 207-241

- by Felipe Vale da Silva
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- Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Utopian Literature, Socialism, Utopianism

Plaquete distribuída gratuitamente em janeiro de 2018.

- by Felipe Vale da Silva
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- Science Fiction, Danish Literature, Utopian Literature, Utopia

Revisiting La città del sole in light of recent scholarship on Campanella’s naturalism and with recourse to key works of his philosophy, I examine how his utopia systematically re-writes Plato’s ideal city from the Republic by simultaneously drawing on and naturalizing a set of key Platonic figures. This transformation serves as an implicit response to criticisms of the utopian project made by Aristotle and Machiavelli; it is also a means of taking distance from the hermetic impulse at work in much of Renaissance Neoplatonism. The City of the Sun can thus be seen as replicating Kallipolis’ rigid order and its connection to absolute truth but simultaneously grounding that order in an empirical naturalism that allows the ideal society to become open.

This is a short chapter written for a book edited by Helena Lugo to commemorate the 2015 the quincentenary of Thomas More's famous novel. The book features chapters by many different artists, writers, and thinkers inspired by the topic of return to More's island. The book encompasses the metaphor of a sea-voyage to revisit the ideals of modernity along with its broken promises and aims to recover a lost future among imaginary and real cartographies. The book can be purchased via the Chalton Gallery, London [http://www.chaltongallery.org/] or please contact me to be put in touch with the editor.

- by Rhiannon Firth
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- Utopian Studies, Anarchism, Utopian Literature, Utopianism
- by Didier COSTE
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- Utopian Studies, Postcolonial Literature, Utopian Literature, Possible Worlds

The idea of the future has always emerged as a major concept for humanity. Each and every period of the civilizations, there has been always a motivation for people to manifest their ideal futures. In the context of urbanism, the intellectual capacity of utopian thinking has influenced most of the discussions on urbanism during history. In this regard, the destructive impacts of industrial revolutions have become the triggering forces to construct the ideal image of the future city. When the first industrial revolution occurred, most of the people were not aware of the forthcoming changes that were going to affect their life significantly, as it happened in the second and the third industrial revolutions. While each industrial revolution brought unexpected outcomes, utopian thinking has generated responses to overcome those negative impacts. Today, we are on the verge of another industrial revolution. Unlike the previous ones, the fourth industrial revolution is expected to change not only the way to produce things but also to change ‘us’ (Schwab, 2016). Therefore, it is possible to claim that the forthcoming era will completely alter the current socio-economic structure. The subject is a newly emerging issue, yet the intellectual history of futurist thinking together with the contemporary future urban models and speculative projects would provide guidance to generate prospective ideas for the possible future. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to examine the existence and validity of futuristic thinking in urbanism in the context of emerging concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and to revisit the reconstruction of the idea of future urbanism within the framework of utopian thought.

- by H. Eren Efeoğlu
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- Future Studies, Utopian Studies, Urban Studies, Utopian Literature

This chapter examines the perverse utopianism in Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel 三体 (literally Three-Body, English translation The Three-Body Problem). It argues that the text’s exploration of the desire for human extinction functions as a critique of the utopian belief in scientific progress, evident in earlier Chinese science fiction and the aesthetics of socialist realism. Extinction becomes a way of mapping the decline of the idea of utopia. The threat of extinction allegorises a number of threats to the human species, particularly climate catastrophe and the future solar death of the Earth. In Three-Body, extinction pushes allegorical writing to its limit. This chapter argues that in reaching the limits of allegory, the text reaches a utopia that is radically inconceivable and refuses inscription.

- by Thomas F Moran
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- Dystopian Literature, Science Fiction, Utopian Literature, Chinese literature
- by Evanir Pavloski
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- Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, Utopia/dystopia

An examination of ecological concepts and their relation to materialist ethics in Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, as well as its connection to earlier works of British utopian fiction such as Morris' News from Nowhere, and to later... more

- by Kai Alvason
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- Systems Thinking, Ecology, Ecocriticism, Utopian Literature

A short investigation of the narrative complexity of Book I of Thomas More's Utopia.

- by Paulo Butti de Lima
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- Democratic Theory, Utopian Studies, Athenian Democracy, Sir Moses Finley

Nuova edizione integrale di T. Moro, UTOPIA (Giunti-Demetra, Firenze 2018). Introduzione e cura di D. Breschi.
Utopia è isola non così lontana, sia pur non definita nelle sue coordinate geografiche. Non è così lontana, perché nella descrizione dell'Inghilterra del proprio tempo Moro ci mostra Utopia come il rovescio del regno dei Tudor. O meglio: come la versione corretta, riformata, di esso. L'utopia di Moro è riformare l'esistente seguendo consigli atti ad ''aiutare il progresso della comunità''. Consigli che vengono da Atene e da Gerusalemme, da Platone e da Cristo... Coltivare l'utopia significa dunque riscoprire il valore della perseveranza, la virtù di chi non cede alle difficoltà e regge nel tempo. Questione di condotta, di stile e di carattere. Tommaso Moro, Utopia, introduzione e cura di D. Breschi, Giunti-Demetra, Firenze 2018, pp. 160, € 5,90.

- by Andreas Urs Sommer
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- Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, German Pietism, Utopia
- by Alessandro Ottaviani
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- Philosophy of History, History of Biology, Utopian Literature, Ernst Jünger

The world is in urgent need of ways to change in order to avert runaway climate change and ecological catastrophe. In this essay I examine the radical alternatives to be found in the utopian visions of two poets and polymaths, one from the East, the other from the West: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and William Morris (1834-1896). They were visionaries as well as being politically engaged, and also social reformers and educators. They criticised industrialisation and the pursuit of profit, and advocated culturally rich, self-sufficient local communities. Both failed in their own practical attempts in this direction and wrote utopian stories about the ways of life they longed for, as if they could never come about in the real world. However, if we focus on their ideas on education and skills training, we find they have much to teach us that is highly relevant to the challenges and opportunities of today. That relevance is enhanced if we also consider how these ideas on learning for life could encourage and accelerate the emergence of the kinds of locally selfreliant communities which Tagore and Morris would recognise and welcome. According to the 'Living Planet Report 2020' from The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF): 'The population sizes of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles have seen an alarming average drop of 68% since 1970'. 1 Wildlife and natural habitats are declining globally at rates unprecedented in millions of years, with extinction taking place at over a hundred times the natural rate in the course of evolution.

- by Chris Marsh
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- Education, Utopian Literature, Localisation, Rabindranath Tagore
- by Natalia Costa Rugnitz
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- Plato, Utopian Studies, Utopian Literature, Utopia

Recensione a P. Vidal-Naquet, Atlantide. Breve storia di un mito, Torino, Einaudi 2006 (trad. it. di Id., L’Atlantide. Petite histoire d’un mythe platonicienne, Paris, Les Belles Lettres 2005). Recensione pubblicata in «RCCM» 50, 2,... more

- by Gianfranco Mosconi
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- History, Philosophy, Classics, Greek Literature

Eisenstein invites us to expand radically the timescale of our thought about humanity's current crises. The separation which is central to his analysis occurred remarkably long ago, some hundreds of thousands of years, when humans first... more

- by Alan Cottey
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- Spirituality, Utopian Literature, Environmental Sustainability, Utopia/dystopia