Delineating the Missing Film Genre: Eutopia

Abstract

This article begins by positing the absence of the eutopian genre within mainstream film and hypothesising that such an absence is worthy of artistic exploration. After discussing why film is considered crucial, the article examines Utopian Studies articles by Peter Fitting, Peter Ruppert and Robert Shelton, who discuss utopia in film with reference to Lyman Tower Sargent’s definition of utopia. The article suggests that although these writers also detected an absence of eutopian film, their analysis was obscured by focussing on the ‘utopian impulse’, a more important tool for scholars than artists. The distinction between the ‘utopian impulse’ and the ‘utopian art-form’ is probed with reference to Fredric Jameson and Douglas Kellner, suggesting that the missing genre might be better described as the utopian art-form. Problems raised by the words ‘utopia’ and ‘eutopia’ are then discussed. ‘Eutopia’ is found to be more suitable for the article’s aims. Following a short summary of utopia’s historical reputation, where Adorno’s argument against describing positive imaginaries is addressed, Tower Sargent’s definition of ‘eutopia’ is explored with reference to the ‘sociopolitical’, ‘place’ and relation of eutopia to its readers. These terms are used to examine the relevance of three films (Black Panther (2018), Tomorrowland (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017)) to the eutopian art-form, showing how using these terms can help to understand what the eutopian art-form is and how to create new instances of it. A closing look at the existing field of mainstream film leads to a summary of this article’s findings, namely that the eutopian art-form is absent and that this space presents a valid space for new artistic creation.