LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Final Exam Submission 2007
Yvonne Hopkins
Topic A1 Utopian Potpourri
Literature as an academic discipline draws much of its power from its ability to generate a multitude of ideas and perspectives in modes that inform and entertain. As a complex, multi-genre construct, it provides opportunities for the study of recognized literary movements and specialized hybrids, such as Utopian Studies, a genre facilitating the development of a potpourri of ideas reflective of the ideals and realities of the human condition.
As readers, we naturally respond to elements of structure, character development, and style in the text that enhance the quality of the reading experience. From this perspective, Utopian literature expresses a lack because even though it adopts a fictional format, it manifests itself primarily as a literature of ideas, in effect promoting philosophical tenets at the expense of the nuances of artistry and style that invoke reader involvement and pleasure.
Clearly, the texts of More and Bellamy focus on the more didactic aspects of Utopian literature, expounding concepts that incorporate sociological, political, and economic factors. The ensuing Socratic dialogue and expository style provide an informative rather than entertaining effect. Gilman and Rand succeed more in the traditional literary sense due to plot and character driven narratives; yet, the emphasis remains the depiction of the utopian or dystopian society, leaving the reader to understand that the purpose of literature varies from text to text and requires a suspension of disbelief if meaning and relevance are to be discerned.
While the lack-luster style of utopian texts renders a less profound reading experience, the underlining ideology leads to interesting and lively discussion as students grapple with the inherent paradoxes of utopian societies and how the collective paradigm compares to our own individualistic model. As Matt Mayo notes, Utopian literature compels its readers “to consider the integrity of [their] existing social order, and consider alternatives” (FE 2005), in effect reinforcing the notion that the inclusive nature of literature provides a medium for interactive discourse and the building blocks for social change.
In other respects, Utopian Studies establishes an intertextual “bridge from fiction to non-fiction” through the sub-genres of historical utopias, political speeches, and slave narratives. Historical utopias reflect both the fictional and non-fictional aspects of the utopian ideology. City of the Sun, New Atlantis, and Christianopolis, for instance, provide reflections of Renaissance philosophy brought to fulfillment in More’s defining text, Utopia. Experiential utopias, such as the self-contained Oneida, Twin Oaks, and the more expansive religious inspired sects of Mormonism and Seventh Adventism depict models for separatism and integration, respectively, while remaining committed to the defining utopian principles on which they were founded.
Yet perhaps the most compelling elements of utopian ideology surface in the political speeches and slave narratives that give voice to the paradoxical elements of consensus and dissent endemic in the utopian vision. As such, it becomes possible to read the utopian genre as a natural extension or sub-genre of the American Dream narrative, or vice versa.
Implicit in the development of the American Dream narrative is the vision of America as a utopia. From the readings of Columbus to John Winthrop, America emerges as a new Eden, an exemplary model, “a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” Part Exodus (with its implications of the “chosen”) and part utopia in the creation of a “Covenant” and “Civil Body Politic” (Bradford), the vision culminates in The Declaration of Independence, an assertion of the American identity as inextricably bound to the ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In this sense, utopian idealism works its way into the fabric of American ideology, serving as a blueprint for democracy.
Parallel to the American Dream narrative is the narrative of dissent emanating from the slave narratives and political speeches that inform the dystopian counterpart of the American experience. The narratives of Equiano, Douglass, and Jacobs resonate with the poignancy of denial in the utopian covenant, serving as evidence that dystopias exist, historically, as testaments to injustice, cracks in the envisioned utopia, a point further elucidated in the speeches of Chief Seattle and Dr. Martin Luther King, whose demands for inclusion reiterate the promise and denial of utopian idealism.
Essentially, Utopian Studies provides a nexus where the ideal and the real meet. By engaging in the exploration of literary and historical utopias, and tracing their elements in other areas of literary, historical, and political discourse, we begin to understand the paradox that shapes our experiences, creating an awareness of the dissonance that erupts in dissent and an eventual movement towards consensus in the universal desire for a better world.
B3c. Times of Innocence and Experience
Utopian literature presents a dilemma in terms of the literary quality associated with the texts read at the graduate level. Part of this stems from the fact that courses grounded in major genres, such as American Romanticism and its counterpart, American Realism, draw from a wealth of diverse material, where the complexity of subject is matched equally by the complexity of the writer’s style and purpose. As a special interest topic, utopian literature relies on a narrower field of material, and the result is often a less challenging literary experience, which is, nonetheless, not without merit.
Such factors as the interweaving of sophisticated plots with intriguing and complex characters that demand our intellectual and emotional investment are conspicuously absent from utopian fiction. The results are less rewarding in the literary sense, and sustaining interest becomes a challenge. Credibility issues also arise in texts such as Looking Backward and Herland, where circumstances appear a little too good to be true and problems are glossed over, creating a sense of absurdity that often produces unintentional amusement in the reader.
Part of the enjoyment attached to reading utopian literature, however, stems from the “quirky-guilty pleasures” derived from the voyeuristic nature of the reading, an effect generated in the escapist and fantasy traits evident in some of the texts. Ecotopia in particular, indulges in these elements – overt drug use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, ritualistic male bonding, the gratification of self – elements that touch, unabashedly, on the personal feelings and behavior of the characters.
Weston’s narrative begins and ends as a newspaper column, reminding the reader that his intent is a journey of discovery into an alternative society. His account develops in an alternating pattern of expository details and personal reflections that begin to play on the emotions of the reader. While gaining a sense of the character and value system of Ecotopia, we are drawn in, sharing Weston’s sense of being a stranger in a land at once strange and familiar, experiencing his growing struggle as his inner conflict and divided loyalties begin to emerge.
Beyond considerations of style, Ecotopia provides an opportunity to consider the novel as a construct of the historical and cultural period that produces it. Written in the mid 1970s, the novel reflects the ecological and social issues prevalent in the time period, including the desire for a nature friendly environment, increased leisure time, and social and gender equality. Historical presentations on Hippie Communities such as Hog Farm and Rainbow Gatherings illustrate the enduring free spirit of the age that exists, albeit it marginally, in today’s society.
Ecotopia’s depiction of women as liberated individuals occupying positions of power, in control of their sexuality and destiny brings to fulfillment the role of women envisioned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in Herland, another novel expressing the social and political climate of its time. Resoundingly, all the course texts reveal the value of literature as a historical document from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to the approach of the millennium. As such, it provides a record of the social ills and the utopian ideals that rose to counteract them.
If, as Matt Mayo notes, the “primary value” of utopian texts is to “stimulate new ideas within the reader,” it should be said that those ideas develop from the opportunity provided by utopian texts to observe ourselves in action, to note what we were, are, and can become. In reading Ecotopia, I am reminded of a time filled with promise, when the vision was inclusive and holistic: utopian. It is easy to believe that the vision of yesterday has narrowed, that we have become polarized by the extremes of conservatism and liberalism, reduced from movement to stasis. As literature majors we are keenly aware of the mimetic nature of the art form and its power to stimulate thought, discussion, and resolve. In this respect, perhaps, the study of utopian literature has never been more relevant or necessary.