Utopias
This course is articulated around the question “what is utopia?” It is concerned with the genesis of the modern idea of utopia at the confluence of two divergent traditions of political thinking, which we can trace back to Plato and Aristotle respectively. It also scrutinizes the relevance of utopias in the contemporary world and their relation to (concepts of) space and imagination, the relation between utopic ideas/ideals and the pursuit of satisfaction, the transition from the pursuit of “good life” to “individual happiness” and the privatization of imaginary. Of relevance are questions concerning the prevalence of uotopic discourses over eutopic imagination, the usefulness and potentiality of utopic thinking, the relation between utopian and dystopian ideas and whether they are opposites, the limits of political imagination, the fantasies of limitlessness, and the fear of the unbound.
The course also aims for an understanding of the relevance of utopian thinking today, the way utopian/dystopian thinking may determine our imagination in reformulating and reconceptualising the relation between past, present, and future, its contribution to rethinking conditions of possibility and imaginability, engaging with radical change and reimagining the present for transforming it into a plausible future. More specifically, while utopia and dystopia will be conceptualized as analytical categories for historical inquiry, we will emphasize the potential impact of utopic ideas on the imagination over their internal conceptual coherence.
The course will also analyse utopia as mechanisation in relation to the idea of an “invisible, all-embracing megamachine.” The analysis of the notion of globalization as total social dystopia alongside contemporary technological utopias will also fall within the scope of analysis of this course. To these ends works of thinkers such as Mumford, Bauman, Graeber, Levitas, Eagleton, and Jameson, among others, will be closely studied. Course materials include both readings and audiovisual works.
