Utopian studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that researches utopianism in all its forms, including utopian politics, utopian literature and art, utopian theory, and intentional communities. In a 1516 book with the same name, the term utopia was created by Sir Thomas More. Utopian studies can be subdivided into three major parts: study of utopian works, communitarianism and utopian social theory.[1] A study opposite to Utopian studies is Dystopian studies. While Utopias are non-existent societies people dream of, dystopias are essentially non-existent and non-desirable societies that individuals deem worse than their present society.[1] They are also known as negative utopias.[1]

A "Utopia" sign in Brazil.

History

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Denis Vairasse is mentioned among the earliest scholars in this field.[1] His History of the Sevarambians contains one of the first thoughts on theoretical reflection on the concept of utopia: "Those who have read Plato's Republic or the Utopia of Thomas More or Chancellor Bacon's New Atlantis, which are in fact nothing more than the ingenious inventions ["imaginations"] of these authors, may think perhaps that this account of newly discovered countries, with all their marvels, is of a similar type ["sont de ce genre"]."[1]

After the Summer of Love in 1960s, there was a significant increase in utopian works.[1] The Society for Utopian Studies was founded in 1975 and the Utopian Studies Society was founded in 1988.

Significant utopian studies scholars (in roughly chronological order)

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Principal research institutions, journals, conferences, societies, awards

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Research institutions:

Name Location Ref
Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies University of Limerick [2]
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures University of Bologna [3]
Interdepartmental Center for Utopian Studies University of Lecce [4]

Societies:

Journals:

Conferences:

  • Society for Utopian Studies, annual
  • Utopian Studies Society, annual

Awards:

  • The Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award, made by the Society for Utopian Studies.

Significant works

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Authors/Editors Description Year
Ernst Bloch The Principle of Hope. 3 Vols. Trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice, Paul Knight. Oxford: Blackwell 1986 [1937-41]
Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent (eds) The Utopia Reader. New York: New York University Press 1999
Gregory Claeys (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to utopian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010
Vincent Geoghegan Utopianism and Marxism. London: Methuen 1987
Fredric Jameson Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London: Verso 2005
Krishnan Kumar Utopia and Anti-utopia in Modern Times. Oxford: Blackwell 1987
Krishnan Kumar Utopianism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press 1991
Ruth Levitas The Concept of Utopia. London: Allan 1990
Karl Mannheim Ideology and Utopia: an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Trans. Louis Wirth and Edward Shils. London: Routledge 1936 [1929]
Tom Moylan Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. London: Methuen 1986
Tom Moylan Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press 2000
Tom Moylan and Rafaella Baccolini (eds.) Utopia-Method-Vision: The Use Value of Social Dreaming. Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2007
Peter Y. Paik From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P 2010
Lyman Tower Sargent British and American Utopian Literature 1516-1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography. New York: Garland 1988
Lyman Tower Sargent Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010
Lucy Sargisson Contemporary Feminist Utopianism. London: Routledge 1996
Lucy Sargisson and Lyman Tower Sargent Living in Utopia: New Zealand's Intentional Communities. Aldershot: Ashgate 2004
Darko Suvin Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale University Press 1979
Darko Suvin Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology. Frankfurt am Main, Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2010
Raymond Williams Tenses of Imagination: Raymond Williams on Science Fiction, Utopia and Dystopia. Ed. Andrew Milner. Frankfurt am Main, Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang 2010

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Peter Fitting -- A Short History of Utopian Studies". www.depauw.edu. 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  2. ^ "University of Limerick". ulsites.ul.ie. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Advanced Research in Utopian Studies in Italy". CETAPS. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Larry E. Hough Distinguished Service Award". The Society for Utopian Studies. 6 April 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
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