50186 Utopias and Dystopias

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Social Inquiry
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks

Handbook description

This subject covers a close study of many models of political theorising, including both the Platonic and Aristotelian approaches: idealism versus critical analysis. It starts in detail with Republic as the fundamental utopian source and concentrates on More's Utopia as the well-spring of the modern visionary political tradition.

Topics investigated include Enlightenment utopias, Socialist utopias, Romantic utopias, Feminist utopias, Eco-utopias, and Cyber utopias. In particular, the utopia of Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time is studied at length and evaluated in depth.

Sources of the dystopian, such as class, wealth, sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, body-shape, 'abilities', competences, knowledge-inequality, religion and speciesism are critically assessed.

Utopias postulated by students are discussed and critiqued as an ongoing exercise.

Subject objectives/outcomes

The objectives of this subject are:

To have students develop a sharp and critical awareness of the role in political and social theory of idealistic and visionary models of 'perfect' societies and their polar opposites.
To have them gain an extensive knowledge of the history of such theorizing.
To enhance their ability to think about schemes for social and political reform.
To have them gain valuable experience in arguing for and criticising both historically important instances of utopian thinking and examples put forward by themselves and other class members.

Contribution to graduate profile

The knowledge acquired and the reflective skills developed in the course of successfully completing this subject will contribute to having students achieve the Faculty's desired graduate profile. This subject will help develop more thoughtful and socially-aware individuals, improve the quality of graduates' analytic thinking, assist graduates to develop as well-informed, inquiring, visionary and realistically optimistic citizens, enhance the social consciousness of graduates, and stimulate graduates towards a greater commitment to social justice and the improvement of their society.

Teaching and learning strategies

The subject combines lectures, student-presentation based seminars, discussions via the UTS Online facilities, and the maintaining of an intellectual-development journal of the progress within the subject.

There will be each week one three-hour in-class session, usually deployed as a one-hour lecture followed by a two-hour seminar.

Content

Models of Political Theorising: the Platonic and Aristotelian approaches; idealism versus critical analysis. Republic as utopian.
The Utopia: More's Utopia - how the modern visionary political tradition began.
Enlightenment utopias - 'reason' as a negative norm of perfection.
Socialist utopias and 'Socialism, utopian and scientific' - Fourier, Saint Simon and the young and old Karl Marx. Romantic socialism: William Morris v Edward Bellamy.
Sources of the dystopian: bases of present discontent - class, wealth, sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, body-shape, 'abilities', competence, knowledge-inequality, religion, speciesism - 'norms'. Communes, hippiedom, and Piercy's utopia.
Science fiction and the utopian tradition.
Feminist utopias.
Environmentalist utopias v the Efficient City.
Dystopias: the promises of science - eugenics and genetic engineering.
'E-topias' – virtual utopianism and cyber-visions.
The Australian utopian tradition: From 'no-where' to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
Utopia and postmodernity: Can we keep dreaming of utopia?

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Tutorial presentation

Objectives	This is designed to help achieve all of the subject's objectives, and especially a, c and d.
Value	20%
Due	Individually assigned Weeks from Weeks 3-13.
Task	Each student must prepare an individual 'utopia' in which his or her own ideas of social and political perfection are expressed along the lines of the chosen week's theme: e.g. feminist, environmental, socialist, technological, etc. The utopia must be written up and posted in the appropriate online forum during the week after the presentation. It should demonstrate a critical consideration of the reading for that week, as well as independent research into theory, history and current events. This task may be individual or group-work, as appropriate.
Assessment criteria	Coherence of the utopian account presented. Evidence of engaging with set readings Evidence of additional research into theory, history and contemporary issues relevant to the topic Ability to stimulate class discussion. Creativity in style and content of presentation. Clarity of presentation. How 'realistic' (i.e. plausible and convincing in its contexts) the utopia is. Whether the alternative social habits and organisations described could be successfully adapted to actual human society. Whether the utopia includes as far as possible a 'total' social and political picture. What consideration there is of the implicit criticisms of present-day society. Accuracy and comprehensiveness of report posted online.

Assessment item 2: Keeping a journal of the subject

Objectives	This task is designed to help achieve objective a
Value	30%
Due	Week 14 – at the last class-session of the semester
Word Limit	1,000 words
Task	To maintain a continuing, week-by-week journal of the subject, which can be in a loose-leaf, 'pasted up', or digital format. This journal must contain for each session of the semester an entry under specified headings which will be explained in detail in class.
Assessment criteria	Accuracy of the record of what is put forward in lectures and seminar presentations. Ability to critically analyse utopian arguments and theories. Evidence of engagment with set readings and of additional research Evidence of reflection on the merits and flaws in utopias proposed for discussion and consideration. Identification of problems and assumptions implicit in utopias presented. Formulation of issues arising from these identifications. Quality of critical reflection on student's own intellectual development.

Assessment item 3: Contributing to the online discussions

Objectives	This is designed to help achieve all of the subject's objectives, and especially d.
Value	20%
Due	Weeks 2-14
Word Limit	2,000 words
Task	Each student must contribute to the online discussions that will be initiated on the subject's dedicated Discussion Board on UTS Online. These contributions, initially on topics assigned for in-class presentations, must amount to at least 12 interventions or submissions per individual and must total at least 2,000 words in length. The initial list of suggested topics may be augmented by the class-members during the semester. Discussion can be initiated by any member on any topic they believe relevant to this subject.
Assessment criteria	Displayed ability to critically analyse utopian arguments and theories. Evidence of engagment with set readings and of additional research Evidence of reflection on the merits and flaws in utopias proposed for discussion and consideration. Identification of problems and assumptions implicit in suggested utopias. Formulation of issues raised by these identifications. Sustained and reasoned arguments for utopias proposed.

Assessment item 4: Major research essay

Objectives	This is designed to help achieve all of the subject's objectives.
Value	30%
Word Limit	2,500 words
Due	Week 14 – at the last class-session of the semester.
Task	To produce a coherent research essay, approximately 2,500 words in length, delineating and analysing aspects of an envisaged utopia.
Assessment criteria	How well students show their understanding of the utopian genre. Evidence of engagment with set readings and of additional research How 'realistic' (i.e. plausible and convincing in their contexts) the utopias are. Whether alternative social habits and organisations described could be successfully adapted to human society. Whether the utopia includes as far as possible a 'total' social and political picture. How internally coherent and consistent their delineation is. What consideration there is of the implicit criticisms of present-day society.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Indicative references

The set textbook for this course is: John Carey (ed) The Faber Books of Utopias, Faber & Faber, 1999.

In addition to this collection of extracts from important utopian works, the novel, Woman On The Edge Of Time, by Marge Piercy will be read in its entirety and discussed in detail.

Additional recommended texts:

Albinski, Nan. Women's Utopias in British and American Fiction, 1988.

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake, Doubleday, London, 2003.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale, Vintage, London, [1985] 1996.

Blisset, Luther. Q : The Dance of Death, trans. Shaun Whiteside, William Heineman, London, 2003.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 'A Reasoned Utopia and Economic Fatalism', New Left Review, no. 227, Jan-Feb 1998.

http://www.newleftreview.org/?issue=223

Bozeman, John. 'Technological Millenarianism in the United States' in Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, (eds.) Robbins, T. and Palmer, S. J., Routledge, New York and London, 1997, pp. 139-158.

Broderick, Damien. The Spike: Accelerating into the Unimaginable Future, Reed Books, Melbourne, 1997.

Buck-Morss, Susan. Dreamworld and Catastrophe: the Passing of Mass Utopia in the West, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2000.

Bull, Malcolm. Seeing Things Hidden: Apocalypse, Vision and Totality, Verso, London, 1999.

Bloch, Ernst. The Principle of Hope (three vols.), trans. Neville Plaice, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1986.

Bostaph, Samuel. 'Deepening the Irony of Utopia: a Mises/Hayek Perspective', University of Dallas, 2007.

Cock, Peter. Alternative Australia: Communities for the Future?, 1979.

Claeys Gregory. Modern British Utopias 1700-1850, 1996.

Dery, Mark. The Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century, 1997.

Eichler, Margrit June Larkin and Sheila M. Neysmith, (eds) Feminist Utopias: Re-Visioning Our Futures, Inanna, 2002.

Ferns, Chris. Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature. Liverpool UP, 1999.

Freud, Sigmund. Civilisation and Its Discontents, Penguin, London, [1934] 2002.

Fox, Richard. Gandhian Utopia: Experiments with Culture,

Beacon Press, 1989.

Eldershaw, M. Barnard. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Virago, London, [1947] 1983.

Dark, Eleanor. Prelude to Christopher, 1934 (republished 2000).

Delany, Samuel R., Dhalgren, 1975 and Triton, 1976.

Goodwin, Barbara. (ed) Special Issue of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, on the topic 'The Philosophy of Utopia', Volume 3 Issue 2 & 3 2000

Gearheart, Sally Miller The Wanderground, 1979.

Hodgson, Geoff. Economics and Utopia, Routledge, New York, 1999.

Kumar, Krishnan. Utopianism, 1991

Kumar, Krishan. Prophecy and Progress: The Sociology of Industrial and Post-Industrial Society, Penguin, Hammondsworth UK, 1978.

Lane, William The Workingman's Paradise: An Australian Labour Novel, 1892.

Le Guin, Ursula. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, 1974.

Levitas, Ruth. The Concept of Utopia, 1990.

Marcuse, Herbert. Five Lectures: Psychoanalysis, Politics and Utopia, trans.1970.

Milner, Andrew. 'Utopia And Science Fiction In Raymond Williams', Monash University, 2002.

Moylan, Tom Demand The Impossible: Science fiction and the Utopian Imagination, 1986.

Mumford, Lewis. The Story of Utopias, Kessinger, New York, [1922] 2003.

Mumford, Lewis. 'Utopia, the City and the Machine' in Frank Manuel (ed) Utopias and Utopian Thought, Beacon Press, Boston, 1966.

O'Brien, Thomas. 'Utopia in the Midst of Oppression? A Reconsideration of Guarani/Jesuit Communites in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Paraguay', Contemporary Justice Review, vol. 7, no. 4, Dec 2004, pp. 395-310.

Parrinder, Patrick. Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching, 1980.

Piercy, Marge. He, She and It, 1991.

Ricouer, Paul. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, 1986.

Robbins, Thomas and Susan J. Palmer, eds. Millenium, Messiahs and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, Routledge, New York, 1997.

Scott, G. Firth The Last Lemurian: A Westralian Romance, 1898.

Spence, Catherine Helen. Handfasted: A Romance 1878, (published 1984).

Stableford, Brian. 'Biotechnology and Utopia', Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Volume 3, Issue 2 & 3 Summer 2000 , pp 189 - 204

Sussex, Lucy and Judith Raphael Buckrich (eds) She's Fantastical, 1995.

Suvin, Darko. Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction, 1988.

Tuveson E.L., Millennium and Utopia: A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress, Peter Smith, 1949.

Vaneigem, Raoul. The Movement of the Free Spirit, trans. Donald Mitchelson-Smith, Zone Books, New York, 1998.

Wilding, Michael. The Paraguay Experiment, 1985.

Winner, Langdon. 'Technology Today, Utopia or Dystopia? Technology and the Rest of Culture', Social Research, Autumn 1997.

Sargission, Lucy. Contemporary feminist utopianism, 1996

Tepper, Sheri S., The Gate To Women's Country, Doubleday, 1988.