Sylabus
UTOPIAS AND DYSTOPIAS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE (JPB163)
COURSE SYLLABUS
Aims and purpose
The primary aim of this course is to introduce the students to the study of the development of the specific genre of political utopias (as well as dystopias) both in political philosophy and in literature. Participation in the seminar should also improve students’ analytical and argumentative skills.
This course uses a combination of lectures and seminars. The students will be expected to have read the assigned reading before the class so that they can participate in the discussion.
Schedule of Classes 1. Introduction, course overview. 2. Plato’s Republic as the first utopia. 3. The Assembly of Women as an early satirical dystopia. 4. Virtuous Utopia versus Corrupt England? The irony of More’s Utopia. 5. The New Atlantis: Francis Bacon’s vision of society governed by science and technology. 6. Swift’s utopian satire: Gulliver’s Travels. 7. Utopian socialism I (R. Owen). 8. Utopian socialism II (C. Fourier). 9. Y. Zamyatin’s We: A Bolshevism inspired social dystopia. 10. Big Brother is Watching you: Orwell’s vision of dystopian future. 11. A. Huxley: Orgy-Porgy – another kind of late modern social dystopia. 12. In the Matrix of virtual reality.
Anotace
Utopia, i.e. a description of a fictional ideal society and/or political regime, is a venerable genre. While the term utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book Utopia (1516), the roots of the genre can be traced back to Plato's Republic (380 BC). From the very beginning, utopia has been accompanied by its twin-sister – dystopia, i.e. negative utopia. The first work of dystopian literature, Aristophanes' comedy The Assembly of Women, was actually written more than a decade before Plato's Republic – in 391 BC. Nonetheless, the heyday of dystopian literature arrives only in the twentieth century, when dystopia practically displaces utopia. The veritable boom of dystopian literature accompanied by the nearly complete disappearance of its utopian counterpart seems to signify that in a century that witnessed the rise of totalitarianism, as well as the unleashing of the Faustian powers of modern technology, our imagination came to be dominated by fears and nightmares rather than hopes and dreams.
The aim of this course is to introduce the students to the study of utopian and dystopian literature. We will explore the historical development and characteristic features of this literary genre, and more importantly, its role as a tool of social and political criticism. Throughout the semester, we will explore the way in which the examined books and films express the hopes and fears characteristic of their day and age. In other words, we will examine how the imagined worlds and societies depicted in utopian and dystopian works reflect upon the real world and society.
The course will be divided into three parts. The first part will examine classical political utopias from Plato's Republic to Bacon's New Atlantis. The second part will focus on 19th century utopian socialism, as well as Marxism. The third part will examine primarily 20th century dystopian literature.