COLT 45 The Quest for Utopia
Thomas More's Utopia was long considered the ultimate paradigm of the kind of vision that utopian thought can produce. But there is no question that More's narrative of Utopia is just a particular example of a very dynamic and complex way to think about historical dead-ends and to envision alternative realities. In this course we will deal with the nature of utopian vision and with the particular dynamics that characterize utopian thought. We will also discuss present day utopias as we try to answer questions like: Is the idea of utopia really dying in our modern world? Are there new utopian visions being generated today, different from More's but with a similar function? What is the relationship between utopia and fantasy, utopia and history, utopia and revolution? What are the utopian constructs of our time and how do they shape our perceptions, our political options, and our social and personal actions?
Course materials may include maps and charts, political manifestoes, films, architecture, travel accounts and literarary works. More's Utopia, Marx's Communist Manifesto Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Yevgeny Zamiatin's We, Elon Musk’s Space X Project are some of the materials we will discuss. The films may include:Woody Allen"s Sleeper, The Matrix, Wall-E, and Ex-Machina.
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Pastor