Utopian studies

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Short description: Field of study

Utopian studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that researches utopianism in all its forms, including utopian politics, utopian literature and art, utopian theory, and intentional communities. The term utopia was created by Sir Thomas More in a book with the same name in 1516. Utopian studies can be subdivided into three major parts: study of utopian works, communitarianism and utopian social theory.[1]

History

Denis Vairasse is mentioned among the earliest scholars in this field.[1] His History of the Sevarambians contains one of the first thoughts on theoretical reflection on the concept of utopia: "Those who have read Plato’s Republic or the Utopia of Thomas More or Chancellor Bacon’s New Atlantis, which are in fact nothing more than the ingenious inventions [“imaginations”] of these authors, may think perhaps that this account of newly discovered countries, with all their marvels, is of a similar type [“sont de ce genre”]."[1]

After the Summer of Love in 1960s, there was a significant increase in utopian works.[1] The Society for Utopian Studies was founded in 1975 and the Utopian Studies Society was founded in 1988.

Significant utopian studies scholars (in roughly chronological order)

Principal research institutions, journals, conferences, societies, awards

Research institutions:

Name Location Ref
Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies University of Limerick [2]
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures University of Bologna [3]
Interdepartmental Center for Utopian Studies University of Lecce [4]

Societies:

  • Society for Utopian Studies (North America, founded 1975)
  • Utopian Studies Society (Europe, founded 1988)

Journals:

  • Utopian Studies (founded 1987)

Conferences:

  • Society for Utopian Studies, annual
  • Utopian Studies Society, annual

Awards:

  • The Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award, made by the Society for Utopian Studies.

Significant works

Authors/Editors Description Year
Ernst Bloch The Principle of Hope. 3 Vols. Trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice, Paul Knight. Oxford: Blackwell 1986 [1937-41]
Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent (eds) The Utopia Reader. New York: New York University Press 1999
Gregory Claeys (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to utopian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010
Vincent Geoghegan Utopianism and Marxism. London: Methuen 1987
Fredric Jameson Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London: Verso 2005
Krishnan Kumar Utopia and Anti-utopia in Modern Times. Oxford: Blackwell 1987
Krishnan Kumar Utopianism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press 1991
Ruth Levitas The Concept of Utopia. London: Allan 1990
Karl Mannheim Ideology and Utopia: an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Trans. Louis Wirth and Edward Shils. London: Routledge 1936 [1929]
Tom Moylan Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. London: Methuen 1986
Tom Moylan Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press 2000
Tom Moylan and Rafaella Baccolini (eds.) Utopia-Method-Vision: The Use Value of Social Dreaming. Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2007
Peter Y. Paik From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P 2010
Lyman Tower Sargent British and American Utopian Literature 1516-1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography. New York: Garland 1988
Lyman Tower Sargent Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010
Lucy Sargisson Contemporary Feminist Utopianism. London: Routledge 1996
Lucy Sargisson and Lyman Tower Sargent Living in Utopia: New Zealand's Intentional Communities. Aldershot: Ashgate 2004
Darko Suvin Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale University Press 1979
Darko Suvin Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology. Frankfurt am Main, Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2010
Raymond Williams Tenses of Imagination: Raymond Williams on Science Fiction, Utopia and Dystopia. Ed. Andrew Milner. Frankfurt am Main, Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2010

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Peter Fitting -- A Short History of Utopian Studies". www.depauw.edu. 2009. https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/107/fitting107.htm. Retrieved 26 December 2021. 
  2. ↑ "University of Limerick". https://ulsites.ul.ie/ralahinecentre/. 
  3. ↑ "Advanced Research in Utopian Studies in Italy". https://www.cetaps.com/arus-italy/. 
  4. ↑ "Larry E. Hough Distinguished Service Award". 6 April 2013. https://utopian-studies.org/larry-e-hough-distinguished-service-award. 

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