Functions of Utopia: How Utopian Thinking Motivates Societal Engagement
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Marx's Confrontation with Utopia Darren Webb Department of Politics
In Search of the Spirit of Revolution: Marx's Confrontation with Utopia Darren Webb Department of Politics Thesis presented to the University of Sheffield for the degree of PhD, June 1998 Summary This thesis offers a sympathetic interpretation of Marx' s confrontation with Utopia. It begins by suggesting that Marx condemned utopianism as a political process because it undermined the principles of popular self-emancipation and self-determination, principles deemed by Marx to be fundamental to the constitution of any truly working class movement. As a means of invoking the spirit of revolution, it was therefore silly, stale and reactionary. With regards to Marx's own 'utopia', the thesis argues that the categories which define it were nothing more than theoretical by-products of the models employed by Marx in order to supersede the need for utopianism. As such, Marx was an 'Accidental Utopian'. Two conclusions follow from this. The first is that Marx's entire project was driven by the anti-utopian imperative to invoke the spirit of revolution in a manner consistent with the principles of popular self-emancipation and self-determination. The second is that, in spite of his varied attempts to do so, Marx was unable to capture the spirit of revolution without descending into utopianism himself Such conclusions do not, however, justify the claim that utopianism has a necessary role to play in radical politics. For Marx's original critique of utopianism was accurate and his failure to develop a convincing alternative takes nothing away from this. The accuracy of Marx's original critique is discussed in relation to the arguments put forward by contemporary pro-utopians as well as those developed by William Morris, Ernst Bloch and Herbert Marcuse. -
Utopia and the Ends of the City 16Th Annual International Conference – Utopian Studies Society (Europe) 1-4 July 2015, Newcastle University, UK
Utopia and the Ends of the City 16th Annual International Conference – Utopian Studies Society (Europe) 1-4 July 2015, Newcastle University, UK. It [a town] is an artefact – an artefact of a curious kind, compounded of willed and random elements, imperfectly controlled. If it is related to physiology at all, it is more like a dream than anything else” Joseph Rykwert, Idea of a Town. “Man ceased to be a wild animal only when he built the first wall” Yevgeny Zamyatin, We. Utopia and the Ends of the City 16th Annual International Conference – Utopian Studies Society (Europe) 1-4 July 2015, Newcastle University, UK. CONFERENCE OVERVIEW BY DAY Day 01 – Wednesday 01 July 13.00 – 16.00 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION 14.00 – 16.00 Careers Session - Optional Careers Session for Postgraduate/Early Career Researchers 16.00 – 17.30 Formal Welcome & Plenary 01 18.00 – 21.00 Welcome BBQ at Northern Stage 1 Utopia and the Ends of the City 16th Annual International Conference – Utopian Studies Society (Europe) 1-4 July 2015, Newcastle University, UK. Day 02 – Thursday 02 July Parallel Sessions Panel 01: Panel 02: Panel 03: Panel 04: Panel 05: Times The Ends of the City Revisions Utopia & the Everyday Utopias, Heterotopias, Representations Dystopias 09.00 – 09.30 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION – Percy Building Foyer 09.30 – 11.00 Urban Voids New Directions in Intentional Early Modern Utopias The Metropolitan Utopian Thought Communities City 11.00 – 11.20 TEA & COFFEE BREAK 11.20 – 12.50 The Sense of an Vertical Tomorrow Never Dies: Ending (1): Infrastructures of Cinematic -
Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700
Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700 Ingo Berensmeyer Literary Culture in Early Modern England, 1630–1700 Angles of Contingency This book is a revised translation of “Angles of Contingency”: Literarische Kultur im England des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, originally published in German by Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2007, as vol. 39 of the Anglia Book Series. ISBN 978-3-11-069130-6 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-069137-5 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-069140-5 DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110691375 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934495 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available from the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. ©2020 Ingo Berensmeyer, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com. Cover image: Jan Davidszoon de Heem, Vanitas Still Life with Books, a Globe, a Skull, a Violin and a Fan, c. 1650. UtCon Collection/Alamy Stock Photo. Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Preface to the Revised Edition This book was first published in German in 2007 as volume 39 of the Anglia Book Series. In returning to it for this English version, I decided not simply to translate but to revise it thoroughly in order to correct mistakes, bring it up to date, and make it a little more reader-friendly by discarding at least some of its Teutonic bag- gage. -
The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Arts and Architecture PLANTAE, ANIMALIA, FUNGI: TRANSFORMATIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ART A Dissertation in Art History by Alissa Walls Mazow © 2009 Alissa Walls Mazow Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 The Dissertation of Alissa Walls Mazow was reviewed and approved* by the following: Sarah K. Rich Associate Professor of Art History Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Brian A. Curran Associate Professor of Art History Richard M. Doyle Professor of English, Science, Technology and Society, and Information Science and Technology Nancy Locke Associate Professor of Art History Craig Zabel Associate Professor of Art History Head of the Department of Art History *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii Abstract This dissertation examines the ways that five contemporary artists—Mark Dion (b. 1961), Fred Tomaselli (b. 1956), Walton Ford (b. 1960), Roxy Paine (b. 1966) and Cy Twombly (b. 1928)—have adopted the visual traditions and theoretical formulations of historical natural history to explore longstanding relationships between “nature” and “culture” and begin new dialogues about emerging paradigms, wherein plants, animals and fungi engage in ecologically-conscious dialogues. Using motifs such as curiosity cabinets and systems of taxonomy, these artists demonstrate a growing interest in the paradigms of natural history. For these practitioners natural history operates within the realm of history, memory and mythology, inspiring them to make works that examine a scientific paradigm long thought to be obsolete. This study, which itself takes on the form of a curiosity cabinet, identifies three points of consonance among these artists. -
The Eden Project – Gardens, Utopia and Heterotopia
Heterotopian Studies The Eden Project – gardens, utopia and heterotopia To reference this essay: Johnson, P. (2012) ‘The Eden Project – gardens, utopia and heterotopia’ Heterotopian Studies [http://www.heterotopiastudies.com] Gardens and utopia Utopias have ‘frequently invoked the special and resonant spaces of gardens, just as gardens have often been utopian in impulse, design and meaning’ (Hunt, 1987: 114): The garden provides an image of the world, a space of simulation for paradise-like conditions, a place of otherness where dreams are realised in an expression of a better world. (Meyer, 2003: 131) The garden features strongly in Thomas More’s original account of utopia. The conversations that form the basis of the book take place in a garden in Antwerp (1965: 17); the narrative suggests that the founder of utopia must have had a ‘special interest’ in gardening; and the inhabitants of utopia are said to be particularly fond of their gardens (53). Bloch goes so far as to suggest that in More’s utopia, ‘life is a garden’ (1986a: 475). Mosser and Teyssot assert that ‘nostalgia for the Garden of Eden has provided garden designers throughout history with a model of perfection to aspire to’ (1990: 12). Elsewhere, Mosser claims that garden enthusiasts seem ‘devoted to creating the impossible’ (1990: 278). Bauman asserts that gardeners ‘tend to be the most ardent producers of utopias’ (2005: 4). A recent exhibition at the National Art Museum of China (2008) entitled ‘Garden Utopia’ articulates the traditional perspective of a Chinese garden as a space for ‘contemplation, a borderland between reality and fantasy to escape the trappings of the modern world and reconnect humanity with nature’. -
VITA Lyman Tower Sargent Born
VITA Lyman Tower Sargent Born: February 9, 1940 563 Cricklewood Dr. Telephone: State College, PA 16803-2118 1-814-238-3531 USA 1-814-753-2080 (Mobile) E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected] Fields Research: Utopian Thought Politics and Literature Recent Normative Political Thought American Political Thought Teaching: Normative Political Philosophy Early Modern and Recent Political Thought Ancient and Medieval Political Thought Politics and Literature American Political Thought Political Theory and Public Policy Education Major Minor B.A. Macalester College 1961 International Political Science, Relations M.A. University of Minnesota 1962 American None Studies Ph.D. University of Minnesota 1965 Political History Science Fellowships and Honors Phi Kappa Delta (National Honorary Debate Society) De Witt Wallace Graduate Fellowship, 1961-1962 Fellow, Wilton Park, England, 1972 Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1981-1982 Distinguished Scholar Award, Society for Utopian Studies, 1997 Distinguished Scholar Award, Communal Studies Association, 2002 Fellow, Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, 1995-1996, Winter 2004, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2013-2014 2 Honorary Research Fellow, Department of History, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, 2006-2007 Visiting Fellow, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, Hilary and Trinity terms 2007 Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Political Ideologies, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, 2007, 2009 Fellow, Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London, 2009-2010 Highfield Fellow, Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Nottingham, 2012 Dissertation The Relationship Between Political Philosophy and Political Ideology: A Study of Etienne Cabet and His Communitarian Experiments. -
Creating Identity and Uniting a Nation
“For I could tell how Natures store Of Majestie appeareth more In waters, then in all the rest Of Elements.” (William Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals, Book I, Song II) Creating Identity and Uniting a Nation - The Development of the Water Motif from Ancient Greek Bucolic to Early Modern English Pastoral Poetry Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Neuphilologischen Fakultät der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg Institut für Anglistik vorgelegt von Jule F. Pölzer-Nawroth Abgabe: 20.05.2019 Disputation: 22.11.2019 Erster Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Peter Paul Schnierer Zweiter Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Athanassios Vergados Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my beloved parents and sister whose love and support have inspired me to follow my dreams; to my wonderful husband who always understood and whose exceptional encouragement and endless patience allowed me to focus on my research; to Phaeton, Klio and Eos who reminded me to leave the books every so often to find my own Arcadia; and finally, to Benedict, who always believed in me but did not live to see the thesis finished. My project was supported by scholarships from the DAAD and the Graduiertenakademie of Heidelberg Universität for which I am very grateful. “I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in. I'll never meet the ground. Crash through the surface, where they can't hurt us. We're far from the shallow now.” “Shallow” (OST “A Star is Born”, 2018) by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Anthony Rossomando Index of Abbreviations Ap. Hymn to Apollo BP Britannia’s Pastorals Callim. Callimachus Cf. -
'POST-SIXTIES': a CULTURAL HISTORY of UTOPIA in the UNITED STATES a Dissert
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ AFTER THE ‘POST-SIXTIES’: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF UTOPIA IN THE UNITED STATES A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE by Madeline Lane March 2016 The Dissertation of Madeline Lane is approved: ____________________________________ Professor Wlad Godzich, chair ____________________________________ Professor Christopher Leigh Connery ____________________________________ Professor Robert Sean Wilson _____________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Table of Contents List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………… iv Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………. v Acknowledgments and Dedication ………………………………………………… vi Introduction: Toward a Theory of Utopia at the End of the Post-60s …………….... 1 Part One: Periodizing Anti-Utopianism …………………………………………… 26 Chapter One: Failed Utopia and the Post-60s in Boyle’s Drop City ............ 31 Chapter Two: “There is no use pretending, now”: Reading Le Guin’s 1970s Critical Utopias Against Anti-Utopianism ………………………………… 57 Chapter Three: Finding Utopia in the Dystopian Turn: Punk Literary Utopias in the Long 1980s …………………………………………………………. 81 Part Two: Of Utopia and Recuperation: The Cultural and Spatial Imagination of the American Tech Industry ………………………………………………………….. 130 Chapter Four: “We Owe It All to the Hippies”: Undoing the Post-60s in the Techno-Utopian 1990s …………………………………………………... 136 Chapter Five: False Utopias of Silicon Valley ………………………….. 179 Part Three: -
Fastoral Paradigms and Displacements, with Some Proposals
Fastoral Paradigms and Displacements, with Some Proposals EDWARD L. RUHE W. W. Greg's study of Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama (1906) be• gins with a denial that "a priori guidance" through "the maze of historical and aesthetic development" is available to any student of pastoral. The field, Greg wrote, has no "cardinal point affording a fixed center"; there can be no "Ariadne's thread" through the maze.1 The "modern historical school of criticism" undertook to refute the a priorism of Pope and Samuel Johnson: "The one fixed idea which runs throughout these criticisms is that pastoral in its nature somehow is, or should be, other than what it is in fact." For, Greg concluded, "pastoral is not capable of definition by reference to any essential quality."2 I As long as people recall that pastor means shepherd, the term pastoral will unavoidably evoke a theory of its own meaning. Thus, "Strictly speak• ing, pastoral requires shepherds and their sheep," as Paul Fussell puts it.3 In the more common current usage, the word is loosely equivalent to what we may call the rural-euphoric Here in effect are two separate theories of pastoral, perhaps more compatible than they seem if we allow for figurative as well as literal shepherds in the pleasant rural places of pastoral. Richard Hardin proposes to define pastoral by the sophistication and malaise of its originating intelligence, the pastoralist.4 The problem has been increasingly interesting ever since William Empson, in Some Versions of Pastoral, ad• vanced such provocative notions as "I think good proletarian art is usually Covert Pastoral"; and "child-cult .. -
Food, Nostalgia, and the Power of Dreaming in Old Comedy and the New Southern Food Movement
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Agrarian Pasts, Utopian Futures: Food, Nostalgia, and the Power of Dreaming in Old Comedy and the New Southern Food Movement A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Drama and Theatre by Lily Kelting Committee in charge: University of California, San Diego Professor Nadine George-Graves, Chair Professor Page duBois, Co-chair Professor Patrick Anderson Professor Anthony Edwards Professor Marianne McDonald University of California, Irvine Professor Daphne Lei 2014 Copyright Lily Kelting, 2014 All rights reserved. Signature Page The Dissertation of Lily Kelting is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-chair Chair University of California, San Diego University of California, Irvine 2014 iii Table of Contents Signature Page ............................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vii Vita……… ..................................................................................................................... x -
Techno-Utopias: Virtual and Utopian Spaces in Literature from the Industrial Revolution to the Computer Revolution
TECHNO-UTOPIAS: VIRTUAL AND UTOPIAN SPACES IN LITERATURE FROM THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION ABSTRACT: This dissertation analyzes the concept of techno-utopias, defined as ideal communities revolving around science and situated in the future. I argue that the faith in science typical of the Industrial Revolution produced a new form of utopia, which led to the representation of virtual spaces in twentieth-century literature and media. From the telegraph to the microcomputer, the dream of machines invaded industrial countries, such as France and the United States. This study examines the fascination with technology present in Villiers’s Ève Future (1886), Zola’s Travail (1901), Marinetti’s manifestos (1909-1924), press articles written by the actors of the Computer Revolution, and Spike Jonze’s film, Her (2013). This work engages with a rich array of theoretical perspectives drawing from various academic disciplines including literature, history of technology, media studies, and philosophy. TECHNO-UTOPIAS: VIRTUAL AND UTOPIAN SPACES IN LITERATURE FROM THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED ON THE FIRST DAY OF JUNE 2015 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ELSA STÉPHAN ©Copyright by Elsa Stéphan 2015 All Rights Reserved Stéphan 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: From Political to Technological Utopias: The Ideal Community in Zola’s Travail ................................................................... 33 1. Technology, condition of the utopia ..................................................................... 39 1.1. The role of politics ........................................................................................ 39 1.2. Technology, the Foundation of the Utopia ................................................... -
Where Community Happens. the Kibbutz and the Philosophy Of
WHERE COMMUNITY HAPPENS WHERE COMMUNITY HAPPENS In reaction to the spread of globalization, recent years have seen considerable growth in the number of intentional communities established across the world. In this collection of articles and lectures, many of them previously unpublished in English, the author analyzes various aspects of the philosophy of the kibbutz W THE KIBBUTZ AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMMUNALISM and draws parallels with other societies and philosophical trends, in the hope that a close look at the ways of thought of the kibbutz – arguably the best- HERE established communalist society – may help other communalists crystallize their own social philosophies. Utopian thought and communal experience are brought to life through the extensive use of the voices of some of the most influential thinkers and kibbutz members of the past hundred years, including CO Martin Buber and David Ben Gurion. “Henry Near has spent a lifetime studying utopianism and intentional MMUNIT communities, with a special focus on the kibbutzim of Israel, of which he is the leading historian. This book brings together his thoughtful reflections on the kibbutzim and related topics. It will long be a benchmark in its field.” Tim Miller, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Kansas “As a distinguished scholar and long-time kibbutznik, communal historian and Y H philosopher Henry Near offers that all too rare combination of passion and balance, vision and realism. This timely book is an invaluable case study of the kibbutz in a broader, comparative perspective including Christian monasteries, APPENS Hutterite colonies, and New Age communes. It offers a goldmine of new evidence and mature wisdom, of value to historians, social scientists, humanists, and partisans of gender equality, youth empowerment, and cooperative alternatives for the twenty-first century.