Utopia: From Thomas More to Science Fiction

(4 Credits)

A “utopia” is an imaginary world, a fantastical “no-place” that claims to convey important truths about the real world. This course surveys the literary genre of utopia from the 16th to the 21st century, focusing on attempts to invent new worlds through fiction. Beginning with Thomas More’s Utopia, we will explore utopia’s emergence in the sixteenth century in response to European political upheaval and colonial exploitation. We will then examine how Anglophone writers transform utopian visions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Finally, we’ll consider how utopia is re-worked in 20th-century science fiction, particularly in its seemingly paradoxical emphasis on both fantasy and realism. Topics will include the politics of gender, sexuality, and race; the relationship between animal and machine; the predicament of an alien in a strange land; the purpose of technology in a perfect society; and the textual forms characteristic of utopian fiction by Shakespeare, Bacon, Cavendish, Swift, Griggs, Wells, Huxley, Dick, Le Guin, Atwood, Park Hong, Wright, and Jemisin.