Peter Boxall, Creativity and Utopia

Creativity and Utopia Spring 2014

Tutor: Peter Boxall Email: [email protected] Room: B263 Tel: x8719 Office hour: Monday 4-5, Friday 1-2

This course explores the intimate relationship between creativity and utopia, as it is played out in literary and theoretical texts across the twentieth century. It examines the extent to which the art work can create new worlds (brave or otherwise), and traces the historical changes in the utopian function of literature from modernism to the present day. The relationship between creativity and utopia will be explored both through the reading of several key utopian texts, and through reflections on the practice of creative writing.

Titles in bold are required reading for the week.

Some Utopias

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal Voltaire, Candide Samuel Butler, Erewhon Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth Elizabeth Corbett, New Amazonia H.G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come, A Modern Utopia Lord Lytton, The Coming Race Mary Shelley, The Last Man Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale Sarah Scott, Millenium Hall Henry David Thoreau, Walden (particularly 'Economy', in course reader). Nathanael Hawthorne, Blithedale Romance See also Mary Ellen Snodgrass, The Encyclopedia of Utopian Literature

Some titles to gesture towards the ongoing debate in Marxism about the role of creativity in articulating or imagining utopias

Herbert Marcuse, ‘The End of Utopia’, in Herbert Marcuse, Five Lectures: Psychoanalysis, Politics and Utopia Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, particularly ‘The Utopian Mentality’ Etienne Balibar and Pierre Macherey, ‘On Literature as an Ideological form’, in eg. Untying the Text Louis Althusser, ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ in eg. Essays on Ideology Ernst Fischer, Art Against Ideology Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia

Some general theoretical works on Utopia

Seyla Benhabib, Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory Susan Buck-Morss, Dreamworld and Catastrophe, particularly ‘Afterward’ Francis Fukyama, The End of History and the Last Man Robert C. Elliott, The Shape of Utopia: Studies in a Literary Genre Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia Manuel and Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World Manuel, ed. Utopias and Utopian Thought Krishan Kumar, Utopianism, and Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Tmes Zygmunt Bauman, 'Utopia with no Topos', in Zygmunt Bauman, Society Under Seige Claeys and Sargent, eds., The Utopia Reader Gregory Claeys, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited: the Sixties and the Emergence of the Postmodern Jacques Derrida, 'Not utopia, the im-possible', in Jacques Derrida, Paper Machine Frederic Jameson, The Seeds of Time Frederic Jameson, 'Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture', in Social Text I (Winter, 1979), pp. 130-148 Louis Marin, Utopics: Spatial PLay Summary reading list:

Week One Introductory week Week Two Thomas Moore, Utopia Stephen Greenblatt, 'Utopian Pleasure', in Cummings and Simpson, eds.,. Cultural Reformations: Medieval and Renaissance in Literary History Week Three HG Wells, The Time Machine Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward Matthew Beaumont, Utopia Ltd.: Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England 1870-1900 (particularly Chapter 1, 'History and Utopia at the Fin de Siècle) Week Four Theodor Adorno, 'Aldous Huxley and Utopia', in Prisms Aldous Huxley, Brave New World George Orwell, 1984 Yevgeny Zamyatin, We Week Five Ernst Bloch and Theodor Adorno, 'Something's Missing', in Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function of Art and Literature (photocopy provided) Samuel Beckett The Lost Ones J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition Week Six Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, 'Sorties: Out and Out: Attacks/Ways Out/ Forays' Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Doris Lessing, To Room Nineteen Elizabeth Bowen, 'The Back Drawing Room', in The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen Week Seven Writing/Reading Week Week Eight Jacques Derrida, 'Passions: An Oblique Offering' Henry James, 'The Figure in the Carpet' Henry James, 'The Middle Years' Samuel Beckett, Ohio Impromptu Virginia Woolf, 'The Mark on the Wall' Week Nine Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway E.M. Forster, 'The Story of a Panic' Leo Bersani, 'Sociality and Sexuality' Week ten Franz Kafka, The Castle, 'Metamorphosis', 'The Burrow'. Maurice Blanchot, 'Kafka and the Work's Demand', in The Space of Literature Frederic Jameson, ‘Modernism, Utopia and Death’ in The Seeds of Time Week Eleven Cormac McCarthy, The Road Samuel Beckett, 'Imagination Dead Imagine' Week twelve Conclusions Week 1 Introduction

Week 2: The Poetry of the Future

Thomas Moore, Utopia Stephen Greenblatt, 'Utopian Pleasure', in Cummings and Simpson, eds.,. Cultural Reformations: Medieval and Renaissance in Literary History

Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning from More to Shakespeare (particularly Chapter 1, 'At the Table of the Great', photocopy available) Frederic Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future George Logan, 'Introduction', in Thomas More, Utopia, eds. Gorge Logan and Robert Adams J.H. Hexter, More's Utopia: The Biography of an Idea Edward Surtz, The praise of Wisdom: A Commentary on the Religious and Moral Problems and Backgrounds of St Thomas More's 'Utopia'

Week 3: Victorian Utopianism and the Backward Gaze

HG Wells, The Time Machine Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward Matthew Beaumont, Utopia Ltd.: Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England 1870- 1900 (particularly Chapter 1, 'History and Utopia at the Fin de Siècle, photocopy provided)

William Morris, News From Nowhere HG Wells, A Modern Utopia HG Wells, The Shape of Things to Come William Morris, 'More's Utopia: Foreword by William Morris' William Morris, 'Architecture and History' William Morris, 'The Dawn of a New Epoch' Patrick Parrinder, Shadows of the Future : H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy Mark Hillegas, The Future as Nightmare : H.G. Wells and the anti-Utopians

Week 4: Utopia, Dystopia and Freedom

Theodor Adorno, 'Aldous Huxley and Utopia', in Prisms Aldous Huxley, Brave New World George Orwell, 1984 Yevgeny Zamyatin, We Frederic Jameson, 'The Politics of Utopia', in the New Left Reviw, vol 25, Jan/Feb 2004 Hannah Arendt, 'Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government', in Irving Howe, ed., Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four David L Kubal, Outside the Whale: George Orwell's Art and Politics Peter Ruppert, 'The Anti-Utopia: the Necessity of History', in Peter Ruppert, Reader in a Strange Land: The Activity of Reading Utopias E.J. Brown, Brave New World, 1984, and We: An Essay on Anti-Utopia Salman Rushdie, 'Outside the Whale', in Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands Raymond Williams, Orwell Isaac Deutscher, '1984 - The Mysticism of Cruelty', in Williams, ed., George Orwell: A Collection of Critical Essays Martin Esslin, 'Television and Telescreen', in Stansky, ed., On Nineteen Eighty-Four Lionel Trilling, 'George Orwell and the Politics of Truth', in Irving Howe, ed., Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four David Bradshaw, ed., The Hidden Huxley: Contempt and Compassion for the Masses

Week 5: Something's Missing

Ernst Bloch and Theodor Adorno, 'Something's Missing', in Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function of Art and Literature (photocopy provided) Samuel Beckett The Lost Ones J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition

Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function in Art and Literature Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September Joseph Long, 'Divine Intertextuality: Samuel Beckett, Company, Le Dépeupleur, in Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, no. 9 Garin Dowd, 'Figuring Zero in the Lost Ones', in Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, no. 9 Sylvie Debevec Henning, Beckett’s Critical Complicity: Carnival, Contestation and Tradition Andrew Bennet and Nicholas Royle, Elizabeth Bowen and the Dissolution of the Novel: Still Lives Hermione Lee, Elizabeth Bowen Edwin Kennedy, Elizabeth Bowen Victoria Glendinning, Elizabeth Bowen: Portrait of a Writer Phyllis Lassner, Elizabeth Bowen

Week 6: : Ways Out: Utopia and Feminism

Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, 'Sorties: Out and Out: Attacks/Ways Out/ Forays' Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Doris Lessing, To Room Nineteen Elizabeth Bowen, 'The Back Drawing Room', in The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen

Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Utopian Novels Ann J. Lane, The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader Lorna Sage, Doris Lessing Lorna Sage, ‘Lessing and Atopia’, in Kaplan and Cronan, eds., Doris Lessing: the Alchemy of Survival Elizabeth Maslen, Doris Lessing Louise Yelin, From the Margins of Empire: Christine Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer Monique Wittig, Les Guérillères (in French) Nan Bowman Albinski, Women’s Utopias in British and American Fiction Jones and Goodwin, eds., Feminism, Utopia and Narrative Frances Bartkowski, Feminist Utopias Polly Wynn Allen, Building Domestic Liberty: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Architectural Feminism

Week 7: Reading/Writing week

Week 8: Utopian Economies of Reading

Jacques Derrida, 'Passions: An Oblique Offering' Henry James, 'The Figure in the Carpet' Henry James, 'The Middle Years' Samuel Beckett, Ohio Impromptu Virginia Woolf, 'The Mark on the Wall'

J. Hillis Miller, ‘The Figure in the Carpet’, in Poetics Today J. Hillis Miller, ‘Re-Reading Re-Vision: James and Benjamin’, in Hillis Miller, The Ethics of Reading Sharon Cameron, Thinking in Henry James Sara Chapman, Henry James’s Portrait of the Writer as Hero Henry James, ‘The Art of Fiction’, in Henry James, The Critical Muse: Selected Literary Criticism Jonathan Freedman, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Henry James Harold Bloom, ed., Henry James: Modern Critical Views S. Gontarski, The Intent of Undoing in Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic texts Roland Barthes, ‘Myth Today’, in Mythologies Diana Knight, Barthes and Utopia: Space, Travel, Writing Week 9: Utopian Sexualities

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway E.M. Forster, 'The Story of a Panic' Leo Bersani, 'Sociality and Sexuality'

Nicholas Royle, E.M. Forster Robert K. Martin and George Piggford, Queer Forster Jeremy Tambling, ed., E.M. Forster Alex Zwerdling, Virginia Woolf and the Real World Su Ried, ed., Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse Sue Roe and Susan Sellers, The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf Harold Bloom, ed., Clarissa Dalloway Jane Dunn, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: A Very Close Conspiracy Laura Marcus, Virginia Woolf Sue Roe, Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf’s Writing Practice Rachel Bowlby, Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf

Week 10: Negativity and Utopia

Viewing of Orson Welles, The Trial

Franz Kafka, The Castle, 'Metamorphosis', 'The Burrow'. Maurice Blanchot, 'Kafka and the Work's Demand', in The Space of Literature Frederic Jameson, ‘Modernism, Utopia and Death’ in The Seeds of Time

Roland Barthes, ‘Kafka’s Answer’, in Hamalian, ed., Franz Kafka: A Collection of Criticism Albert Camus, ‘Hope and the Absurd in the world of Franz Kafka, in Gray, ed., Kafka: A Collection of Critical Essays Max Brod, ‘The Castle: Its Genesis’, and following essays, in Flores and Swander, Franz Kafka Today Hannah Arendt, ‘Frank Kafka’, and Ernst Fischer, ‘Kafka Conference’, in Hughes, ed., Franz Kafka: An Anthology of Marxist Criticism Theodor Adorno, ‘Notes on Kafka’, Walter Benjamin, ‘Some Reflections on Kafka’, Erich Heller, ‘The Castle’, and Heinrich Henel, ‘”The Burrow”, or How to Escape from a Maze’, and Heinz Politzer, ‘The Wall of Secrecy: Kafka’s Castle’, in Bloom, ed., Franz Kafka: Modern Critical Views Anthony Thorlby, Kafka: A Study Douglas Kellner, ed., Postmodernism - Jameson - Critique

Week 11: Ecotopias

Cormac McCarthy, The Road Samuel Beckett, Imagination Dead Imagine Richard Powers, 'The Seventh Event' Ken Kearney, 'Cormac McCarthy's The Road and the Frontier of the Human', in LIT, 23, 2. Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas Laurence Buell, The Environmental Imagination Timothy Morton, Ecology without Nature Ursula Heise, Sense of Place, Sense of the Planet

Week 12: Conclusions