Week 1: Lecture: Introduction – when and where is utopia – and why is it there – and how would we talk about it?
Theme – What became of the Philosopher Kings? (From Plato to Shakespeare via the early Christian writers)
Readings:-
Plato: Republic, Shakespeare: The Tempest
Additional readings:-
Bloch, E. (2000) Geist der Utopie (in English)Stanford,CAL: Stanford University Press.
Bloch, E. (1970) A Philosophy of the FutureNew York: Herder & Herder.
Burwell, J. (1997) Notes on Nowhere: Feminism, Utopian Logic, and Social TransformationMinneapolis:University ofMinnesota Press.
Ellul, J. (2009 [1973]) The Technological Society London: Vintage
Ferns, C. (1999) Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian LiteratureLiverpool:LiverpoolUniversity Press.
Greenman, J., Schchardt, R. & Toly, N. (2013) Understanding Jacques Ellul Cambridge: James Clarke & Co.
Halpin, D. (2002) Hope and Education: the Role of the Utopian ImaginationLondon: Routledge.
Jameson, F. (1994) The Seeds of TimeNew York:Columbia Press.
Levitas, R. (1990) The Concept of UtopiaSyracuse, NY.:SyracuseUniversity Press.
Midgley, M. (2004) The Myths We Live ByLondon: Routledge.
Wegner, P. (2002) Imaginary Communities: Utopia, the Nation, and the Spatial Histories of ModernityBerkeley,CAL:University ofCalifornia Press.
Week 2: Lecture: More’s Utopia in its historical context
Theme: the English split with Rome, Humanistic culture, and the privacy of the intellectual collective.
Readings:-
Marin: the Introduction, More: Utopia – selections from the initial framing
Additional readings:-
Baker-Smith, D. (1991) More’s UtopiaLondon: Harper Collins.
Olin, C. (1989) Interpreting Thomas More’s ‘Utopia‘New York:FordhamUniversity Press.
Week 3: Student presentation – Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly.
Lecture: More’s rhetorical construction of Utopia
Theme: the utopian text as a literary form facilitating the play of ideas – contemporary examples and contrasts.
Readings:-
Marin: selected aspects of his analysis, More: Utopia – selections from the description of Utopia
Marin, L. (1984) Utopics: the semiological play of textual spacesNew York: Humanity Books
Additional readings:
Marin, L. (2002) On Representation Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
Barthes, R. (1986) The Semiotic Challenge Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1.
Barthes, R. (1987) Michelet Oxford: Blackwell, the Introduction
Week 4: Lecture: Ensuring the future security of the State: knowledge and power.
Readings:-
Bacon: selections from his New Atlantis and Novum Organum
Additional sources:
Bacon, F. (2013) Physical and Metaphysical Works: including the Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum London: ULAN Press
Claeys, G. (ed.) (1994) Utopias of the British EnlightenmentCambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press.
Eliar-Feldon, M. (1982) Realistic Utopias: the Ideal Imaginary Societies of the RenaissanceOxford: Clarendon Press.
Kenyan, T. (1989) Utopian Communism and Political Thought in Early Modern EnglandLondon: Pinter.
Price, B. (ed.) (2002) Francis Bacon’s ‘The New Atlantis’: New Interdisciplinary EssaysManchester:ManchesterUniversity Press.
Week 5: Student Presentation: the present significance of deductive and inductive reasoning
Lecture: Satire and utopia
Readings:-
Selections from Voltaire: Candide; Swift – A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms
Additional sources:
Aldridge, A. O. (1975) Voltaire and the Century of LightPrinceton,N.J.:PrincetonUniversity Press
Appelbaum, R. (2002) Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth Century EnglandCambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press.
Fox, C. (2003) The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Jacobs, E. (1987) Voltaire on TragedyCambridge: Chadwyck-Healey
Keener, F. (1983) The Chain of Becoming: the philosophical tale, the novel, and a neglected realism of the Enlightenment: Swift, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Johnson, and AustenNew York:Columbia University Press.
Thatcher, C. Ed. (1995) Voltaire: selected writings London: Everyman
Voltaire (1994) Letters to the English Nation Oxford: Oxford University Press
Week 6: Review point for first assignment – group and individual tutorials on this throughout the week as requested.
Week 7: Lecture: Shelley – Frankenstein, or a New Prometheus – the scientific and technological dimension to Romanticism.
Readings:-
Selections from Shelley’s Frankenstein – both editions will be featured.
Additional sources:
Armitt, L. (1996) Theorising the FantasticLondon:Arnold.
Baker-Smith, D. (1987) Between Dream and Nature: Essays on Utopia and DystopiaAmsterdam: Editions Rodolpi.
Donawerth, J. (1997) Frankenstein’s Daughters: Women Writing Science FictionSyracuse,NY:SyracuseUniversity Press.
Doughty, C. (2006) PrometheusLondon: Routledge.
Week 8: Student presentation: the contemporary nature of a new Prometheus
Lecture: tragedy as the loss of social relation.
Readings:-
Selections from Shelley’s Frankenstein – both editions will be featured.
Additional sources:
D’Eramo, M. (2001) The Pig and the Skyscraper: a history of our future London: Verso
Guarneri, C. (1991) The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century AmericaIthaca,NY:CornellUniversity Press.
Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; very useful analysis of designed community.
Holloway, M. (1966) Heavens on Earth: Utopian Communities in America, 1680 – 1880New York:Dover.
Hopkins, E. (2000) Industrialisation and Society: a social history 1830-1951 London: Routledge
Thomis, M. (1977) Responses to Industrialisation: the British experience, 1780-1850 Newton Abbott: David Charles
Week 9: Lecture: The Old and the New – emerging forms of tragedy at the beginning of the Twentieth century.
Readings:-
Selections from Wells’ The Time Machine, The War in the Air, and The War of the Worlds
Additional sources:
James, S. (2012) Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, modernity, and the end of cultureOxford: Oxford University Press
Kalin, M. (1975) Utopian Flight from Unhappiness: Freud Against Marx on Social ProgressTotowa,N.J.: Littlefield.
Markus, T. (1993) Buildings and PowerLondon: Routledge.
Rosenau, H. (1983) The Ideal City: its Architectural Evolution in Europe, 3rd. edtn.London:Methuen.
Wolf, M. (1997) Shaw and Science Fiction University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Week 10: Student presentation – can we still beat the Martians?
Lecture: Biology as Fate.
Readings
Selections from Wells: The Island of Dr. Moreau, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Zamyatin’s We.
Additional sources:
Albinski, N. (1988) Women’s Utopias in British and American FictionLondon: Routledge.
Jagose, A. (1994) Lesbian UtopiasLondon: Routledge.
Week 11: Second assignment planning and review.
Week 12: Lecture: Stephenson – The Strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Additional sources:
Midgley, M. (2000) Science and PoetryLondon: Routledge.