What is the relationship of the perfect and the impossible with the imperfect and the immediate world? What is the commitment of those imagining utopia to their visions? What is the purpose of utopian literature? What role has it played in the development of political thought? Intellectuals and dreamers throughout history have imagined utopias - perfect worlds in which the moral and social problems that eternally plague human societies are absent. Imaginings of utopia have produced some of the most vivid and profound religious, political and artistic literature in history, and real-world efforts to create utopia have resulted in social experiments in better living both tragic and fantastic. This course investigates many of the expressions of utopia in human history, beginning with the ancient writings of the Bible and Plato and continuing to the present day. Medieval millennia heretical movements, Renaissance political manifestos, modern revolutionary texts and poems, futurist and science fiction texts, art and films, dystopian writings, and cult, fundamentalist, and environmental beliefs also discussed. While Utopian literature has been a major theme in Western culture, similar prophetic vision movements and expressions in non-Western societies, including the Maya, in African, anti-European struggles, and in the Middle and Far East discussed. The topic of utopia allows for true cross-disciplinary study, as it combines literature, political philosophy, social science, and history; utopian writing straddles several genres and forms, such that it has become its own genre of literature.
Prerequisite: Earned credit or concurrent enrollment in HMST 101