Utopian Elements Research Articles

Jak przerobić baśnie na zaangażowane utopie? Twórczość prozatorska Angeli Carter


 
 
 
 Celem artykułu jest przeprowadzenie analizy dwóch powieści Angeli Carter, Magicznego sklepu z zabawkami (1967) i Mądrych dzieci (1991), a także wybranych baśni/opowiadań pisarki, na czele z Krwawą komnatą (1979) i Towarzystwem wilków (1977). Autorka tekstu ukazuje, jak przekształcanie popularnych motywów baśniowych lub fabuł powieściowych (z uwzględnieniem takich gatunków jak powieść inicjacyjna, powieść obyczajowa, powieść o artystach, tu także artystkach) zamienia je w utopie i to z wyraźnie feministyczną sygnaturą. Rozwiązania proponowane przez Carter, często wzbogacane o elementy utopii albo dystopii, mają na celu nie tylko zakwestionowanie fallogocentrycznych reguł; prowadzą także do pytań, czy jest ono w ogóle możliwe.
 
 
 

Neorealism in the work of Gianni Rodari. Reflections 100 years after the birth of the author

Within the influence of Gramsci’s pedagogical model in the work of Gianni Rodari, this article examines the novel Piccoli vagabondi (Small vagabonds) (1952-1953), a unicum in the author’s production of Grammatica della fantasia (The Grammar of Fantasy), as it is characterized by neorealistic themes and by a communicative style that uses “proletarian” rhetoric, progressive vision and utopian elements. After mentioning the national issue of the non-existence of children’s literature (which Gramsci mentions in his essays on popular literature) and the neorealistic traits present in Rodari, the paper enters more directly into the merit of the neorealist novel, which presents itself as a document of the pedagogical effort (even contradictory) made by the Partito Comunista Italiano (Italian Communist Party) in the political climate of the “cold war” and as a testimony to the origin of the author’s search to reconcile realism with fantasy, dream and invention.

Утопические элементы концепции гражданского общества

Утопические элементы концепции гражданского общества

Tradition, Modernity and Utopia in Muṣṭafà Luṭfī al-Manfalūṭī’s Madīnat al-Saʿādah

Abstract Utopian and dystopian writing does not generally belong to the established canon of Modern Arabic prose, which is largely founded upon realism. However, utopian elements appear with relative frequency in the Nahḍawī literary output, as testified by early texts such as Faransīs Marāš’ Ġābat al-Ḥaqq, Faraḥ Anṭūn’s al-Dīn wa-l-ʿilm wa-l-māl and Muṣṭafà Luṭfī al-Manfalūṭī’s Madīnat al-Saʿādah. Utopian concepts in these and other similar works are deployed to introduce ideas and debates of modernity to their Arab readers, in a context where entrenched views on how social life should be organized were under deep scrutiny. Utopian writing is concerned with debating and challenging social organizations. While it is sometimes regarded as typical of a Western Modern “critical” tradition of thought, in which it came to be codified into a specific literary genre, most of its features appear in pre-modern literatures as well. This is particularly unsurprising in Islamicate contexts, whose literature and philosophy have been in continuous mutual exchange with the “West” and share with it both Classical (Hellenic) and Abrahamic foundations. I argue that, in the Nahḍah context, utopian writing could have provided an instrument to convey selected “modern” ideas and writing styles while consciously melding them with the local Arabic traditions. This paper analyzes Manfalūṭī’s short story Madīnat al-Saʿādah (The City of Happiness), one of the earliest examples of Nahḍawī utopian writing by a Muslim writer. I show that in displaying, as already known, marked references to the Classical Arabic literary tradition, while incorporating, engaging, and selectively suggesting several ideas central to Western discussions on modernity, this short story exemplifies the richness of Nahḍawī reflection.

A History of the Future: Prophets of Progress from H.G. Wells to Isaac Asimov by Peter J. Bowler

607 BOOKS IN REVIEW Shakespeare weighs states and statesmen on the scale not of what is best, but of what is “better.” The strengths and weaknesses of his book are on full display in the chapter on utopian elements in popular music. What could have been the most intriguing section of the book is marred by a lack of analytical momentum. It is not surprising to find that the wish for a better world is a common theme in rock as well as in rap, but there is no overarching point about the significance of utopian motifs in music. Some of the songs he cites are interesting for the ironic gaze they cast on the wish, while more recent tunes express a brutal view of what constitutes personal happiness. Blaim takes a classificatory approach that, while making scattered references to historical events, fails to achieve a grounding in historical consciousness. Thus, the chapter, which might have yielded an intriguing reflection on contemporary youth culture, ends on an anodyne reference to John Lennon’s “Imagine” (1971). A doc-trinaire attachment to the theme of better worlds in its most literal guise results in the neglect of the worldtransforming impact of rock music, which has spurred the emergence of youth culture around the globe while also making the transgression of the most ancient moral codes into something quotidian and innocuous. The final four chapters of the book are devoted to topics relating to literary theory in communist Poland and the Soviet Union. The section dealing with the function accorded to literary criticism in the Soviet Union presents little that is new, but the chapter on semiotics, which focuses on the work of Yuri Lotman, yields a concept that might have given Blaim’s book the unifying principle it so sorely lacks. Lotman regards both dialogue and conflict as fundamental to the health of both the individual and society. Does this make Lotman’s philosophy utopian or anti-utopian? It is a pity that Blaim, while conscious of this question, did not rearrange the texts in his study to pursue the questions that preoccupy Lotman, such as the value of self-correction and the possibility of cultural development, in the composition and the interpretation of utopian texts.—Peter Paik, Yonsei University Voices Prophesying Progress (or Crying Beware! Beware!). Peter J. Bowler. A History of the Future: Prophets of Progress from H.G. Wells to Isaac Asimov. New York: Cambridge UP, 2017. x+287 pp. $74.99 hc, $24.99 pbk. Despite the apparent implications of its subtitle, A History of the Future is not primarily a study of futuristic sf or even of future fiction generally. There are numerous references to Wells, Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, and significant (but fewer) references to other sf writers (e.g., Robert A. Heinlein and Olaf Stapledon), as well as well-known “mainstream” futuristic writers (Aldous Huxley and George Orwell), but no extended readings of their works. Instead, the subject of this book is futurology in all its forms, with brief mentions of literary futures introduced as needed. Even more than literary texts, Peter Bowler relies on popular science writing, both in books and in magazines. The books include two that are likely to be familiar to anyone interested in early British sf, J.B.S. Haldane’s Daedalus: Or Science and the Future (1924) and J.D. Bernal’s The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1929), as well as a range of others less well 608 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 46 (2019) known. Examples of the latter class are The World in 2030 (1930) by the Earl of Birkenhead (less grandly named F.E. Smith), The Birth of the Future (1934) by Peter Ritchie Calder, and several books by “Professor” A.M. Low, especially The Future (1925) and Our Wonderful World of Tomorrow (1934). The magazines most frequently cited include the long-defunct British periodicals Armchair Science, Conquest, Harmsworth Popular Science, Meccano Magazine, and Practical Mechanics, as well as the still viable American publication Popular Mechanics. Bowler’s other sources include newspaper articles, advertisements, government projects, corporate statements, world fairs—anything that would reflect trends in the attitudes toward progress, by which Bowler means...

Die civitas maxima bei Wolff und Hanov

Abstract: In this paper, the theories of the civitas maxima (universal state) in the work of Christian Wolff (1679–1754) and Michael Christoph Hanov (1695–1773) are investigated. Topics are the layers of international law, the concept and constitution of the universal state, utopian elements, the ontological status of the universal state, conversion of other states, and migration. As a critical counterpart, the idea of nation is explored in these authors as well as in the political theories of romanticism, namely in Adam Müller (1779–1829) and Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834).

Clones are humans: the dystopian elements in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

This article explores and aims to identify and foreground the dystopian aspects of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go in the context of identity, memory and lack of resistance. Various issues have been raised in previous research in regard to this novel, such as: how the narrator’s memory is related to her identity, why don’t the clones show any sign of opposition to the situation they are in, does the ending provide an optimistic view of the world. The utopian elements of Never Let Me Go, however, have not been much discussed. The objective here is to place Ishiguro’s novel in the context of the utopian tradition, since such an approach will provide new perceptions about the above-mentioned questions. The research will show how the novel’s dystopian elements are helpful in understanding the nature of the clones, their identity and memory.

Walking Towards Elfland

In this paper I revisit Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Omelas” by situating it between the often-opposed genres of utopia and fantasy. I explore Le Guin’s critical writings to show how she has already involved these genres—and “Omelas”—in an artistic dialogue which can be brought to bear fruitfully on the utopian concerns of “Omelas” and the scholarship surrounding it. In doing so, I reverse a common reading of “Omelas” as “anti-utopian” by showing that the utopian elements of the story are in fact heightened when it is read according to the definitions of fantasy that Le Guin develops in her essay “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie” and other nonfiction writings.

Of Wonder and Changing the World: Philip Allott’s Legal Utopianism

Utopian perspectives on law are rare – both within legal theory, which generally eschews utopianism as frivolous and unrealistic, and within utopian studies, which have argely neglected to analyse the role that law plays in utopia or on the path towards it. Philip Allott’s work, and his latest monograph ‘Eutopia’ in particular, constitutes a notable exception which is positioned at the intersection between law and utopianism, and this paper aims to explore that intersection with a view to identifying the conceptualisation of law that it implies. To tease out the utopian elements in Allott, I suggest reading ‘Eutopia’ in light of Ernst Bloch’s ‘The Principle of Hope’. Three related utopian themes can thus be identified: the orientation towards the future based on dreams, imagination, and educated hope; the defamiliarisation from the present to open up possibilities of change; and the situation of utopian thought in relation to present reality, dynamically construed, with an emphasis on the need for action by human beings to propel society towards a utopian future. I argue that this framework leads to a utopian account of law which is critical of the law as it stands, dynamically oriented towards an open future, and in the hands of human beings who have the power to shape and transform its content. The conclusion considers the implications of this analysis for the genre of text to which ‘Eutopia’ belongs: If the point is to transform law and society by way of human action, then it constitutes a utopian manifesto that aims to instigate a sense of responsibility among its readers, and thus achieve the world as it could be.

Publications on Utopia and Dystopia in the United Kingdom and Ireland (2016–2017)

Publications on Utopia and Dystopia in the United Kingdom and Ireland (2016–2017)

A Utopian Commentary on the Plight of Nigeria: Ken Saro-Wiwa’s “Africa Kills Her Sun”

Abstract:This article investigates the presence of utopian elements in Ken Saro-Wiwa’s short story “Africa Kills Her Sun,” and the extent to which they dismantle an otherwise bleak commentary on the protagonist’s reality. Ernst Bloch’s notions of “pre-illumination,” “daydreaming,” and “not-yet” are employed as analytical tools in order to unravel the narrative’s utopian content.

ISU-ISU KRISIS DALAM NOVEL-NOVEL DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTION AMERIKA

This paper focuses on issues and discourses about the crisis that existed in the dystopian science fiction (dystopian sf) novels. In this case, Hunger Games Trilogy (2008-2010), Maze Runner Trilogy (2009-2011), Divergent Trilogy (2011-2013) are the main object to see how far the text of dystopian sf novels address issues and discourses about the crisis within. Dystopian sf novels that are the counter-discourse of utopian sf novels has no longer present the utopian elements of the future, but, contrastly present the worst possibilities of the future. It appears that the dystopian sf writers present narratives about crisis, poverty, darkness, and pessimism in their novels. It even reads as a form of criticism and warning that the writers are trying to convey to the reader through fictional texts. In the end, the conditions of crisis seen in the text of these dystopian sf novels open its relationship with the world's history outside the text.Keywords: crisis, dystopian science fiction, America, history.

ISU-ISU KRISIS DALAM NOVEL-NOVEL DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTION AMERIKA

This paper focuses on issues and discourses about the crisis that existed in the dystopian science fiction (dystopian sf) novels. In this case, Hunger Games Trilogy (2008-2010), Maze Runner Trilogy (2009-2011), Divergent Trilogy (2011-2013) are the main object to see how far the text of dystopian sf novels address issues and discourses about the crisis within. Dystopian sf novels that are the counter-discourse of utopian sf novels has no longer present the utopian elements of the future, but, contrastly present the worst possibilities of the future. It appears that the dystopian sf writers present narratives about crisis, poverty, darkness, and pessimism in their novels. It even reads as a form of criticism and warning that the writers are trying to convey to the reader through fictional texts. In the end, the conditions of crisis seen in the text of these dystopian sf novels open its relationship with the world's history outside the text.Keywords: crisis, dystopian science fiction, America, history.

Psychoanaliza i utopia

There are parallels between three movements that blossomed during the first decades of the twentieth century: Marxism, Zionism and psychoanalysis. Utopian elements were present in all three, expressing a deep commitment to improving human life, but also aspects of denial and illusion that led to more complex results than initially expected. Rescue fantasies played a role in these movements, implying omnipotence, self-idealization and the demonization of a guilty party. The kibbutz movement in Israel was influenced by all three, and its communal childrearing system proved to be flawed. Dangers of rigidity and dogmatism in psychoanalysis are related to this background.

Bir (Kentsel) Ütopya Olarak “Ankara” Romanı

THE NOVEL “ANKARA” AS (URBAN) UTOPIA Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu's novel “ Ankara ” was written in 1934 as a utopian narrative that represents the hope for an ideal society arising from political and ideological connotations of the revolutionary transformations in 1930s. Aim of this paper is to discuss the connections and contradictions between utopian elements of the novel and socio-spatial context of the early Republican period in relation to the planning practice of Ankara. ' Ankara ' is composed of three chapters. The first chapter represents the of national struggle through the experiences of a young woman, Selma, in Ankara during the Independence War; whereas the second chapter represents the negation of this spirit after the constitution of the Republic through Selma's disappointment in her new life in Yenisehir. The novel satirizes the construction period of Yenisehir around 1926 as a of superficial persons, who pursue their individualist desires of money and rent; thus the main theme of the utopia appears as the of the individualist ambitions for private interest from the Republican revolution. Along this theme, Karaosmanoglu describes an community with its elements at different scales, such as industrial and agricultural development based on Statism, urban and rural interaction, workers and peasantry, arts, media, education, cinema and theatre, etc. Furthermore, he depicts the spatial implications of these elements in cultural and public life through the daily activities of the protagonists Selma and Neset Sabit in Ankara . In this way, the city Ankara emerges as the spatial representation of the Authors' imaginary Its streets, public places, squares are depicted as the embodiment of the national solidarity, unity, hope and happiness. Analysis of the utopian characteristics of these social and spatial elements reveals that Ankara is written as a literary expression of the ideas of Kadro ( Cadre ) movement, in which Karaosmanoglu has a key role. In this respect, the novel Ankara reflects the Kadro 's attempt to reformulate Kemalist ideology as a systematic doctrine of the Republican revolution and it functioned as a pedagogical narrative that aimed to disseminate Kadro 's perspective into the public agenda. However, the conflicts between Kadro 's ideological activity and the government party led to the elimination of Kadro movement from the political agenda in 1934. The utopian dimension of the novel reflects its authors' idealist viewpoint in which the existing class conflicts in the political of the early Republic is negated by the means of its community. Nevertheless, its utopian impulse is still worth reading as an expression of social hope inspired by its historical period. Key Words: Ankara; Yenisehir; urban utopia; urban planning; imaginary community; early republican period; nation state

THE PAST IS EVIL/EVIL IS PAST: ON RETROSPECTIVE POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, AND TEMPORAL MANICHAEISM

ABSTRACTOne of the most remarkable phenomena in current international politics is the increasing attention paid to “historical injustice.” Opinions on this phenomenon strongly differ. For some it stands for a new and noble type of politics based on raised moral standards and helping the cause of peace and democracy. Others are more critical and claim that retrospective politics comes at the cost of present‐ or future‐oriented politics and tends to be anti‐utopian.The warnings about the perils of a retrospective politics outweighing politics directed at contemporary injustices, or strivings for a more just future, should be taken seriously. Yet the alternative of a politics disregarding all historical injustice is not desirable either. We should refuse to choose between restitution for historical injustices and struggle for justice in the present or the future. Rather, we should look for types of retrospective politics that do not oppose but complement or reinforce the emancipatory and utopian elements in present‐ and future‐directed politics.I argue that retrospective politics can indeed have negative effects. Most notably it can lead to a “temporal Manichaeism” that not only posits that the past is evil, but also tends to treat evil as anachronistic or as belonging to the past. Yet I claim that ethical Manichaeism and anti‐utopianism and are not inherent features of all retrospective politics but rather result from an underlying philosophy of history that treats the relation between past, present, and future in antinomic terms and prevents us from understanding “transtemporal” injustices and responsibilities.In order to pinpoint the problem of certain types of retrospective politics and point toward some alternatives, I start out from a criticism formulated by the German philosopher Odo Marquard and originally directed primarily at progressivist philosophies of history.

Religion, Food, and Eating in North America

Religion, Food, and Eating in North America

Searching for Utopia: The History of an Idea

Searching for Utopia: The History of an Idea

Utopische Elemente der mittelalterlichen Reiseliteratur

This article investigates utopian elements in accounts of journeys to the East that circulated in the German-speaking areas in the fourteenth century. The travelogues studied are German translations of the reports of Odoric of Pordenone, Marco Polo and John Mandeville. The paper begins by elaborating on a notion of utopia that can serve as a genre-specific analytical tool for tracing characteristics of early modern utopias in medieval travel literature. At the centre of this notion lies a social structure which significantly differs from the social structure known to the western traveller. Further characteristics complement this concept, particularly those concerning the literary form employed in these descriptions of utopian societies. The second part of this article will specifically examine the social conditions in the utopian societies presented in the travelogues studied. In addition it will deal with the aesthetic strategies employed by the texts to create specific places, in which kingdoms and other communities with utopian traits are situated in medieval travel literature.

The Auld Bollocks, or, James Kelman's Masculine Utopics

This article examines the treatment of male sexuality in James Kelman’s fiction, paying particular attention to his frequent representations of and reflections on masturbation and sexual loneliness. 
 
 As part of an extended appreciation and critique of the recent criticism of Carole Jones, this article argues that, whilst Kelman’s representations of male sexuality involve an assault on traditional masculine gender norms, they also contain utopian elements, ones neglected in Kelman scholarship to date.