Literary Objectives (1 & 2)

Objective 1. the Utopian Genre

1a. How to define the literary genre of “utopias?” What elements and difficulties repeatedly appear? What audiences are involved or excluded?

1b. What different genres contribute to, interface with, or branch from utopia? Examples: dystopia, ecotopia, Socratic dialogue, tract, propaganda, satire, science fiction, fantasy, novel / romance, adventure / travel narrative. Others?

1c. Can utopias join science fiction, speculative fiction, and allied genres in constituting a “literature of ideas?”

1d. What other stylistic or affective elements recur? Examples: nostalgia, hope, alienation, displacement or transference, didacticism.

Objective 2. Utopian Narratives

2a. What kinds of stories rise from or fit with the attempt to describe an ideal or dystopian community?

2b. What problems of plot or narrative rise from a utopian vision that minimizes conflict and maximizes description or exposition of success and harmony? What genre variations derive from these problems with plot?

2c. What tensions rise between the author’s description of a social theory and the reader’s demand for a story?

2d. How essential is “millennialism” (apocalyptic or end-time narrative) to the utopian narrative?

Objective 3. Historical / Cultural Objectives

3a.To investigate historical, nonfiction attempts by “communes,” “intentional communities,” or even nations to put utopian ideals into practice. Admittedly, all utopian communities eventually fail (or at least submerge), but how to get beyond “They don’t work” as a discussion-stopper? (For instance, even if all utopias fail, that doesn’t stop people from imagining or attempting utopias.)

3b.Are utopian impulses limited to socialism and communism, or may freemarket capitalism also express itself in utopian terms and visions? Is utopia “progressive / liberal” or “reactionary / conservative?” What relations between “self and other” are modeled?

3c. What literary, cultural, and historical prototypes exist for utopia? Is the utopian impulse universal, or is it unique to western civilization, esp. in its modern phase?

3d. In postmodern history, is the utopian impulse extinct? Can utopian ideals survive the postmodern universal of irony?

3e. What relations are there between fictional and actual utopian communities? What has been the historical impact of utopian fictions?

3f. What social structures, units, or identities does utopia expose or frustrate? What changes result in child-rearing, feeding, marriage, aging, sexuality, etc.? (Social units or structures: person/individual/self, gender, sex, family [nuclear or extended], community, village/town/city, class, ethnicity, farm, region, tribe, clan, union, nation, ecosystem, planet.) How may utopian studies shift the usual American arguments over race, sex, faith, and gender to cultural and socio-economic class?

3g. What is utopia’s relation to time and history? Does a utopia stop time, as with the millennial rapture or an idea of perfection? Or can utopias change, evolve, and adapt to the changes of history?

3h. Since our major texts are all set in North America, what is the relation of Utopia to America? What problems does the USA’s cultural context present for discussing utopian issues? (Especially contexts of the Cold War, the collapse of Marxist-Stalinist Communism, the ascendance of religious and freemarket fundamentalism, and stress on the family?)

Interdisciplinary Objectives (4)

4a. What academic subjects or disciplines are involved with utopian studies? Examples: literature, history, sociology, economics, architecture, urban planning?

4b. How may utopian or millennial studies serve as an interdisciplinary subject of study? What strengths and weaknesses result from this status? (Comparable interdisciplinary subjects include women’s studies, gender studies, ethnic studies [e. g., African American studies, whiteness studies], future studies, millennialism.)

4c. Is “utopia” too simple and singular a word or concept for the variety of phenomena it describes? Conversely, what does utopia reveal about an author’s or culture’s cosmology or worldview, as well as cosmogonies or origin / creation stories?

4d. How do literature and literacy appear in utopian or dystopian cultures? Include computer literacy: What is a “virtual utopia” in science fiction and technology? How has utopian speculation, communication, and organization adapted to the Web? How does the Web itself assume utopian or millennial attributes?

4e. How may a seminar classroom serve as a microcosm, model, or alternative for American culture? How does use of web instruction alter social dynamics?