BA Seminar: Utopia and Dystopia in American Culture

B.Sc. seminars
obligatory courses

The seminar is a continuation of themes and topics discussed during the winter proseminar, but with a more theoretical and critical slant to assist students with the formulation of a research perspective and methodology in their discussion of individual cultural texts. The aims of the critical engagement with the two thematic concepts are the following: 1) to examine critically the very notions of utopia and dystopia; 2) to identify utopic and dystopic trends in American culture in historical perspective; 3) to look at the cultural and political effects of the speculative energies of these trends in their respective social contexts. The specific choice of theoretical texts discussed during classes is to aid students with their critical work towards the completion of their BA thesis within the utopia/ dystopia studies framework.

The seminar is a continuation of themes and topics discussed during the winter proseminar, but with a more theoretical and critical slant to assist students with the formulation of a research perspective and methodology in their discussion of individual cultural texts. It focuses on the two intertwined concepts of utopia and dystopia as modes of imagining the functioning and organization of societies for the purposes of cultural and political critique in the USA. Evoking the notions of “an good/ideal place” or “a bad place” permeated by pessimism, fear, distrust, injustice and oppression, utopia and dystopia have been modes of speculative reconstruction of societies whereby worlds are imagined as either perfected or having gone terribly wrong for all sorts of reasons (i.e.: war, the influence of technology, social conflicts based on gender, race and/or wealth, climate change, and so on). The seminar therefore asks the following questions, among others: What were the waves of utopic and dystopic trends in American culture from the 19th century onwards, and what were their sources? What is the relationship of dystopia to utopia in this context? How do utopic and dystopic speculations engage technology, politics, and society in relation to the conditions of their inception? Can utopias and dystopias channel modes of critique and mobilize real political action or are they just coping mechanisms and imaginary spaces of projection whereby social, political or economic tension is expressed and phantasmatically released? What other modes of writing fueled utopic and dystopic thought and what was its reception? The specific choice of theoretical texts discussed during classes is to aid students with their critical work towards the completion of their BA thesis within the utopia/ dystopia studies framework.

Booker, Keith M., The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism (Greenwood Press, 1994)

Booker, M. K., Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide (Greenwood Press, 1994)

Claeys, Gregory, Dystopia: A Natural History (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Claeys, Gregory, The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature (CUP, 2010)

Fisher, Mark, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative (Zero Books, 2009);

Green, J. Late Postmodernism: American Fiction at the Millennium (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

Han, Byung-Chul, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power (Verso, 2017);

Helm, Dieter, Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels (Yale University Press, 2018);

Jameson, Fredric, Archeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (Verso, 2017)

Kumar, Krishan, Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times (Blackwell, 1987)

Link, Eric Carl and Gerry Canavan, Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (CUP, 2015)

Moore, Jason W., Anthropocene or Capitalocene?: Nature, History and the Crisis of Capitalism (PM Press, 2016);

Moylan, T., and Raffaella, B. eds, Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination (Psychology Press, 2003)

Nye, David E., American Technological Sublime (The MIT Press, 1996);

Sisk, David W., Transformations of Language in Modern Dystopias (Greenwood Press, 1997)

KNOWLEDGE

Student:

• knows the critical framework and tools belonging to utopian studies as a research perspective

• understands the importance of utopian thinking in shaping and reflecting on cultural processes in the context of American democracy

• knows the most important utopic and dystopic trends in American culture and understands their main thematic concerns.

SKILLS

Student:

• knows how to read cultural phenomena and literary texts using the analytical tools of utopian and dystopian studies

• is able to offer readings of utopic and dystopic representations by means of the acquired interpretative tools;

• knows how to develop and manage a research topic for a BA thesis

• knows how to formulate and develop research questions

• knows how to support a thesis with coherent and well-argued reasons

SOCIAL COMPETENCES

Student

• understands the ongoing need for reflection on the history and current shape of utopian thinking

• understands the role of critical thought in mapping social and cultural problems

The completion of the BA seminar requires:

1. Obligatory attendance with the exception of two allowed absences per semester (this also includes remote learning)

2. Careful preparation and active participation in class

3. Meeting all the set deadlines in connection to the process of writing a BA dissertation

4. Submission of the completed BA dissertation