Utopian Horizons. Ideology, Politics, Literature
Utopian Horizons. Ideology, Politics, Literature
Contributor(s): Zsolt Czigányik (Editor)
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Political Philosophy, Political Sciences
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: Utopia/Dystopia;political thoughts;political religion;
Summary/Abstract: The 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia in 2016 has directed attention toward the importance of utopianism. Utopian Horizons investigates the possibilities of cooperation between the humanities and the social sciences in the analysis of 20th century and contemporary utopian phenomena. The chapters deal with the major problems of interpreting utopias, the relationship between utopia and ideology, and the problematic issue as to whether utopia necessarily leads to dystopia. Covering such fields as literary studies, political science and the history of ideas, the volume demonstrates that a cooperative approach results in a fuller understanding of the role of fictionality in the social sciences. Besides reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary utopian investigations, Utopian Horizons effectively represents the constructive attitudes of utopian thought, a feature that not only defines late 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, but is one of the primary reasons behind the rising importance of the topic.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-963-386-182-0
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-963-386-181-3
- Page Count: 264
- Publication Year: 2017
- Language: English
Ideology and Utopia
Ideology and Utopia
(Ideology and Utopia)
- Author(s):Lyman Tower Sargent
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory
- Page Range:19-40
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Karl Mannheim;Paul Ricoeur;ideology and utopia;political theory;
- Summary/Abstract:The relationship between the concepts of utopia and ideology is very complex, and there are such fundamental disagreements over the nature of both that they can be classed as “essentially contested concepts.” As a result, as scholars trying to understand the relationship regarding specific texts, we have to be careful to make clear how we are using the concepts and then do so consistently.
- Price: 9.90 €
When Does Utopianism Produce Dystopia?
When Does Utopianism Produce
Dystopia?
(When Does Utopianism Produce
Dystopia?)
- Author(s):Gregory Claeys
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory, History and theory of political science
- Page Range:41-61
- No. of Pages:21
- Summary/Abstract:So how far is utopianism part of totalitarianism, or theoretically or causally related to it? This is, clearly, a definitional issue at the outset, and so an assessment of terms is necessary at the outset here. I will then look at a schema of utopian projections before turning to the totalitarian dystopia.My concentration here will be on the now well-grounded hypothesis that utopia has been most prone to produce dystopia when it assumes the shape of a “political religion.” Finally, I will try to modify this hypothesis somewhat by disaggregating the millenarian and other components within supposed “political religions” in order to see what is left once the more destructive elements in modern utopianism have been winnowed out.
- Price: 9.45 €
From the Political Utopia to the Philosophical Utopia—and Rescuing the Political Utopia, on Second Thought
From the Political Utopia to the Philosophical Utopia—and Rescuing the Political Utopia, on Second Thought
(From the Political Utopia to the Philosophical Utopia—and Rescuing the Political Utopia, on Second Thought)
- Author(s):Fátima Vieira
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory, Political Sciences
- Page Range:63-75
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Political Utopia;Philosophical Utopia;dystopia;
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter I wrote for the Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature,I set out to offer an outline of the history of the concept of utopia by highlighting the way the meaning of the neologism created by Thomas More has changed over the centuries.1 As I evinced then, after its deneologization the concept of utopia underwent several semantic renewals, having been used by different authors to refer to a variety of things. This fluctuation of meaning, I then tried to show, was largely due to the never-ending tension that prevails between the concept of utopia (literally a “nonplace”)and that of eutopia (a “good place”).
- Price: 5.85 €
Third Way Utopianism
Third Way Utopianism
(Third Way Utopianism)
- Author(s):András Bozóki, Miklós Sükösd
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory
- Page Range:77-101
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:liberal socialism;utopia;Anarchism;Central Europe;
- Summary/Abstract:In this chapter we examine hybrid political ideas that bridged or even blended allegedly incompatible ideologies and created a new texture. The ideas to be discussed are “anarcho-democracy” and “liberal socialism” in twentieth-century Central Europe. These ideas came close to utopian thinking in that their representative proponents tried to find a non-existent third way between clear-cut models. Instead of hewing to either anarchism or liberal democracy, they tried to figure out a third way solution between the two. Instead of taking sides in the historic debate between liberalism and socialism, they tried to find a new blend, liberal socialism. Therefore it is not unjustified to call them variations of third way, or hybrid, utopianism. Refusing to accept “either/or” solutions, third way thinkers wanted to discover a new road to human paradise that incorporated all the good sides of opposing ideologies and eliminated their negative aspects. In approaching this topic, we suggest that a utopia does not always represent a clear and coherent single idea. On the contrary, a utopian vision might appear as a positive way out of two or more sometimes negative (but often contradicting) perspectives by merging and transcending them.
- Price: 11.25 €
George Orwell, Soviet Studies, and the “Soviet Subjectivity” Debate
George Orwell, Soviet Studies, and the “Soviet Subjectivity” Debate
(George Orwell, Soviet Studies, and the “Soviet Subjectivity” Debate)
- Author(s):Dmitry Halavach
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory
- Page Range:103-117
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Orwell;utopia;Soviet Union (USSR);
- Summary/Abstract:One of the most recent and important contributions to Soviet history is that of “Soviet subjectivity” literature. This approach originates in the works of Igal Halfin and Jochen Hellbeck, for both of whom Michel Foucault and post-structuralist theory are major sources of inspiration. Halfin and Hellbeck use the Foucauldian analysis of the creation of subjectivity by power to look at the Stalinist purges in a new way. The self that they write about is not a Cartesian or Kantian self, but rather an intersection of discourses and mechanisms of power. This is a radical version of the linguistic turn in history, and the questions that Halfin and Hellbeck raise are equally radical. What potential for resistance was there in the USSR? What were the limits and peculiarities of the new “Soviet self”? And what were the sources of the uniquely confessionary nature of Stalinist terror?
- Price: 6.75 €
Marxist Utopianism and Modern Irish Drama, 1884–1904
Marxist Utopianism and Modern Irish
Drama, 1884–1904
(Marxist Utopianism and Modern Irish
Drama, 1884–1904)
- Author(s):Eglantina Remport
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Political Theory, Drama
- Page Range:121-144
- No. of Pages:24
- Keywords:marxism;utopia;Irish drama;
- Summary/Abstract:Karl Marx’s Capital was the seminal work of nineteenth-century socioeconomic criticism, generating heated social and political debates in Britain and Ireland. There is a view according to which the social theories proposed by Marx and his friend, Friedrich Engels, were themselves utopian, although both social critics repeatedly emphasized their rejection of nineteenth-century utopian socialism—Marx himself claimed bluntly that it was simply “silly” and “stale” and “reactionary.” During the second half of the nineteenth century, Marxism, in its various shapes and forms, emerged as a powerful movement, making its very palpable presence felt in late-Victorian economic, social, and political discourses in England. Henry Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation preached that revolution was the only means by which to change workers’ rights and status in society. Sidney Webb’s Fabian Society proposed a slower but steadier way of social reconstruction to be achieved through a series of parliamentary reforms. Rev. Stewart Headlam’s Christian Socialist congregation intended to put the repeated calls for social change on a religious footing, hoping to change the atheistic character of that Marxist social critique. These various socialist political formations may have been divided as regards to the means by which they intended to achieve social change, but were nonetheless united in their efforts to bring about that change. A key figure in all these emerging developments and political discussions was the artist, designer, and social critic William Morris, who shaped the ways in which socialism and Marxism developed as political philosophies in Britain and Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century. While looking at the indebtedness of Morris’s thinking to that of Marx, this essay also demonstrates the influence of his political thought on Irish literature through the early works of William Butler Yeats (The Wanderings of Oisin, The Countess Cathleen, Cathleen ni Houlihan and The Land of Heart’s Desire) and George Bernard Shaw (John Bull’s Other Island).
- Price: 10.80 €
Civil Religion as Utopian Ideology
Civil Religion as Utopian Ideology
(Civil Religion as Utopian Ideology)
- Author(s):Károly Pintér
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory, Sociology of Religion
- Page Range:145-159
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:utopia;Civil Religion;H. G. Wells;
- Summary/Abstract:Utopias have a controversial relationship with organized religions. As they are by definition seeking to present a social vision of a human community organized along significantly different rules and conventions than the author’s contemporary society, they implicitly or explicitly challenge the norms and habits of existing societies, including the moral code and spiritual goals, which are predominantly influenced by the majority religion of that particular community. In other words, utopias have an inherent heterodox tendency, which renders them suspect in the eyes of religious authorities. The Catholic philosopher Thomas Molnar summarized this phenomenon succinctly when he described utopias as “perennial heresies” in relation to doctrinal orthodoxy: “The important utopian writers are heretics from the point of view of Christian doctrine; they want to restore man’s original innocence—his knowledge and power—and, to achieve this objective, they want to abolish original sin and start with unspoiled beginnings.”
- Price: 6.75 €
Negative Utopia in Central Europe
Negative Utopia in Central Europe
(Negative Utopia in Central Europe)
- Author(s):Zsolt Czigányik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Sciences
- Page Range:161-179
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:utopia and dystopia;political ideology;symbolism;nationalism;fascism;anarchism;
- Summary/Abstract:There is a curious book that keeps causing discomfort to its readers: A Voyage to Kazohinia, written in or around 1935 and first published in1941, is often considered the single most important book of the Hungarian utopian (and dystopian) tradition. As part of a larger project of mapping Hungarian utopianism from a social and political perspective, this chapter analyzes this book of central importance by displaying its textual and structural parallels with contemporary political ideologies, especially nationalism, fascism, and anarchism.
- Price: 8.55 €
What They Were Going to Do About It
What They Were Going to Do About It
(What They Were Going to Do About It)
- Author(s):Ákos Farkas
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:181-199
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Aldous Huxley;utopia;Hungary
- Summary/Abstract:In 1936, two years after the establishment of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), Britain’s largest pacifist organisation of the twentieth century, one of the organization’s founders, Aldous Huxley, undertook to write a pamphlet to promote the Union and its cause. In the thirty-one-page booklet, Huxley set out to persuade hard-headed opponents of pacifism that peace was not only a desirable, but also a practicable alternative to war. He pleaded that any kind of peace was preferable to any kind of war, even at the cost of rewarding the aggressor: Italy attacking Abyssinia, Japan devastating Manchuria and Germany bent on annexing “Middle Europe”and overrunning Russia.1 Assessing the lessons of ancient and modern history, post-Darwinian biology, advanced economics, and even modern ethnography, Huxley formulated three major postulates: that war is alien to human nature; that war is always the problem and never the solution; and that lasting peace can only be achieved through fairness, mutual understanding, and the generosity of the powerful. The specific conclusion was that Great Britain, one of the “satisfied” powers of the international community—to use, somewhat anachronistically, a term introduced into Britain’s political discourse by George Lansbury a year later, one of the “haves,”—should set a political example to the rest of the world by addressing the justifiable complaints of the “dissatisfied” countries—the “have nots.”2 In the meantime, fair-minded Englishmen and Englishwomen were exhorted by Huxley to set a personal example to their government by supporting the Peace Pledge Union. The answer to the question in the pamphlet’s title, What Are You Going to Do About It? is thus simple: embrace the cause identified in the subtitle by taking immediate action to achieve “Constructive Peace.” Or, as the opening of the booklet advances its thesis, act in the belief that “what is called the utopian dream of pacifism is in fact a practical policy.”
- Price: 8.55 €
The City in Ruins
The City in Ruins
(The City in Ruins)
- Author(s):Vera Benczik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:201-201
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:utopia;film;post 9/11New York;trauma of September 11th;
- Summary/Abstract:The present essay focuses on post-9/11 films which present the cataclysm and the post-apocalypse implaced in New York. The central motif analyzed will be the effects of the conjunction of the iconographies of fictional catastrophe and historical trauma, how the September 11 attacks and their aftermath influenced and re-shaped the topicalization and visualization of widespread urban destruction, especially that of Manhattan, and how a narrative of historical trauma intersects and interweaves with narratives of spatial carnage regarded as entertainment.
- Price: 8.10 €
Realism and Utopianism Reconsidered
Realism and Utopianism Reconsidered
(Realism and Utopianism Reconsidered)
- Author(s):Zoltán Gábor Szűcs
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Political Theory
- Page Range:219-237
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:utopianism;realism;Realism in Fiction;
- Summary/Abstract:This essay was written as a contribution to The Paradox of Realism project (National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH K 117041). George R. R. Martin’s fantasy book series, A Song of Ice and Fire (1996–, followed by the Game of Thrones TV series based on the books, 2011–) was critically acclaimed as a dystopian depiction of a world of dynastic wars, civil discontents, and feudal feuds. Its plot is centered around power hunger, violence, conspiracies, and treachery. Not surprisingly, many reviewers welcomed the series as a textbook example of Machiavellian political realism. Self-contradictory as it may seem, a story of imagined lands, decadelong winters, zombies, magic, and dragons proves to be markedly realistic, at least in comparison with the classics of the fantasy genre, especially J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. How can this be possible? If political realism, in a nutshell, is the refutation of the Kantian assertion that “all politics must bend its knee before right,”1 then Tolkien’s novels may justly be described as representing Kant’s ideal, while Martin’s books present us a world where “might is right.” Most of Martin’s characters would readily concur with the crude sincerity of the Athenians recorded in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, an unsurpassed classic of realist thinking, that “you know as well as we do that when we are talking on the human plane questions of justice only arise when there is equal power to compel: in terms of practicality the dominant exact what they can and the weak concede what they must.”
- Price: 8.55 €
Afterword
Afterword
(Afterword)
- Author(s):Zsolt Czigányik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory
- Page Range:239-248
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:utopia;
- Summary/Abstract:The present volume offers interdisciplinary analyses of utopian phenomena.The interdisciplinary nature of studies in utopianism (and also in other fields) is becoming more and more accepted, yet the cooperation of the various disciplines in interpretation is not automatic, and their emphases and approaches may differ substantially.
- Price: 4.50 €
List of Contributors
List of Contributors
(List of Contributors)
- Author(s):Zsolt Czigányik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
- Page Range:249-250
- No. of Pages:2
- Keywords:list of contributors
- Summary/Abstract:Contributors
- Price: 4.50 €
Index
Index
(Index)
- Author(s):Zsolt Czigányik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
- Page Range:251-256
- No. of Pages:6
- Keywords:index;
- Summary/Abstract:Index to Utopian Horizons
- Price: 4.50 €
