• to determine what qualities constitute individual, social and metaphysical definitions of utopia, and to decide to what extent different versions of the same general concept stand separately or in relation to each other. Can a paradise, for example, also be utopia? Must a paradise also be a utopia? What is the relationship between a utopia and a dystopia (a place where all is for the worst, not best)? Is a utopia really all that definable?
• to investigate utopian thinking in relation to the sometimes competing human pressures of nostalgia and futurism, historical topicality and trans-historical universality, and in relation to exploration, progress, technology and spirituality: does "progress" define our notions of utopia?
• to explore ways in which the basic creative impulses to imagine a utopia also define imaginary or historical versions of New Worlds, colonies, empires—and the inhabitants of those places
• to investigate the ways that abstract or creative thinking became part of actual historical experiments in social planning, especially in the United States
• finally, to develop a sophisticated theoretical vocabulary for discussing utopian thought in its many forms and varieties.

I especially encourage creative and personally rewarding final projects that use and extend the theoretical issues developed in the course. These projects may be literary, political, historical, or broadly cultural in emphasis: everything from in-depth literary analysis of Thomas More's irony to an examination of an American socialist utopian community is possible.

I assume (and reward) perfect or near-perfect attendance, as well as active engagement in all aspects of the seminar. Absences in excess of three over the semester may result in a lowered final grade; extreme cases of absence may result in failure for the semester.

In order to pass the course, all major projects (Response Papers, Mid-term Exam and Final Project) must be completed.

Grades are calculated according to these values:

20% 2 Response Papers (10% each)

20% Mid-term Exam

50% Final Project (including prospectus and presentation)

10% Attendance, engagement

There will be occasional required activities (field trip, lecture, films) outside of class. Students will need to make arrangements in advance to attend these.

J. W. Johnson, ed., Utopian Literature: A Selection

Sir Thomas More, Utopia

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland

James Hilton, Lost Horizon

Frank Capra, dir., Lost Horizon

George Orwell, 1984

Terry Gilliam, dir., Brazil

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward

Robert V. Hine, "California's Socialist Utopias"

Lawrence Foster, "Free Love and Community: John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Perfectionists"

Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century

Gary Ross, dir., Pleasantville

Margaret Wertheim, "The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace"

Steven Weinberg, "Five and a Half Utopias"

These questions serve two functions in our seminar. First, they are offered as a guide to your reading or viewing—and in this way they can also serve in our class discussions. Second, they are available as topics for the response papers. Each student is responsible for two (2) response papers over the course of the semester, each one 2 pages long and handed in before discussion of the work in question begins. You may choose any two works, but at least one of your response papers must be handed in by March 15.

1. With particular reference to the Garden of Eden passage from Genesis, where do you find the ancient tradition locates paradise—what does it look like, what does it imply, where in time is placed?
2. Considering both Classical and biblical sources, what is the relationship between the personal and social in Utopian thinking?
3. What do you see as the central theme or themes in the selection from Plato’s Republic? Explain.
4. What relationship between theology and politics do you see in the biblical and Classical texts you read for class?

1. More invented this important term, basing the name upon two puns in Greek: "good place" and "no place." How do you see these two conceptions of the perfect society at work in the book?
2. What does More gain by mediating the story through Raphael? Why not just tell it himself?
3. Is Utopia a perfect place? Explain.
4. Over the centuries, many popular conceptions of Utopia seem to have lost More’s sharp sense of irony in the telling of this story. Where is More ironic? To what end?
5. Describe and comment on the geography and urban planning of Utopia.
6. In what ways does More make this story seem real, believable, historical? Why not just tell it as the fiction that it really is?
7. To what extent is More’s Utopia a social vision and to what extent a moral vision? Put another way: a paradise or a utopia?

1. Is this novel, one of the first and most important in English, more bound by its time or more universal? Explain.
2. Discuss the relation of providential theology to human endeavor in this work.
3. Does your twentieth-century perspective on European colonialism influence your interpretation of the roles of Xury and Man Friday? Is your reaction, whatever it might be, what Defoe intended, do you think?
4. Is this novel more about paradise or utopia, do you think?

1. What are the spiritual values implicit in Bellamy’s social system?
2. Where is Bellamy obliged to premise his program of social change upon presumed changes in human nature as the nineteenth century understood human nature?
3. Do you feel Bellamy is a disciple of More? Explain.
4. Do you feel Bellamy is a disciple of Plato? Explain.
5. Who do you think speaks for Bellamy in this novel?
6. Select one or two places where Bellamy’s system breaks down, is illogical, or self-contradictory.

1. How, in its fundamental emphasis or emphases, does Herland differ from other Utopian or paradisal stories we have encountered so far? In what ways is it similar?
2. How does Gilman differentiate the three men in the story? Why?
3. Describe the tone of this book, giving examples to support your view.
4. Chapter 10 is an explanation of Herland’s religion. What do you think Gilman intends with the religion(s) of "love"? Out of what value system is she working?
5. We have discussed the ways that Utopian writers often ignore or finesse "human nature." Do you see ways that Gilman does as well? Explain.

1. Focus upon the opening of the novel: what is the effect of "enclosing" or "framing" Conway’s story in this way?
2. In what relation does Shangri-La stand to More’s Utopia?
3. How important is the Eastern setting of this story? Could there be a Western Shangri-La, located (let us say) somewhere in the Alps?
4. Offer a character sketch of Robert Conway. What is at the core of his personality or psyche?

1. We discussed the opening of the narration in Hilton’s novel: what are the results of delaying the "framed narrative" of the book until the very end of the film?
2. How does Capra define his characters, even before they arrive in Shangri-La? How does he convey a sense of character development or transformation?
3. How do the characters in the film differ from those in the novel? Do you see any general trend in Capra's handling of the story?
4. Do you think that Capra’s conception of Shangri-La differs in any important ways from Hilton’s? Explain.
5. Does the film do justice to the book? Does it improve upon the book?

1. Do you see any of the fundamental philosophical and/or social ideas of Utopian thinkers in the plans of ONE of these communities? Discuss one or two ideas in detail.
2. Is there a connection between Wright's vision for Broadacre City and his childhood or familial circumstances?
3. Based upon the discussions and documents you read, can you suggest why either Llano del Rio or Oneida failed? Do earlier Utopian writings provide any indications?
4. Is Margaret Wertheim correct about the Utopian elements of people’s attraction to cyberspace? Defend your position.

1. Is this novel successful as a piece of imaginative writing or is it merely a political agenda in the form of a novel?
2. The year 1984, an inversion of the year 1948, has come and gone. In your opinion and according to your experience, was Orwell more right or more wrong about the late twentieth century?
3. What strategies does Orwell use to make Winston Smith sympathetic to us? Be specific.
4. "Implicit in every dystopia is a utopia." Does this proposition hold true for 1984?

1. To what extent do you think this film opposes humanity and technology? Humanity and bureaucracy? Which is Gilliam’s greater concern, do you believe?
2. What is the significance of the plastic (or cosmetic surgery) subplot?
3. Characterize the protagonist Sam: What are his ambitions? His fears? His dreams? What do they tell us about his society as a whole?
4. What is your analysis of the film’s final scenes—the opposition of Sam’s final dream and the reality of his predicament?
5. Can you offer an analysis of landscape, scenery and place in this film?
6. How do Orwell’s novel 1984 and this film compare? How are they different?
7. Is this film satiric, do you think? If so, of what?

1. Perhaps an obvious question: how is this story suited to a cinematic treatment, perhaps even inherently cinematic or "visual" in its basic conception?
2. Where or what is the paradise or utopia in this story: Political? Social? Individual?
3. How does the landscape of Pleasantville compare with the landscapes of other paradises or utopias we have encountered?
4. Throughout the course we have discussed the universal appeal of utopian and paradisal thinking. How inherently or specifically American is this story? How would it play in, say, Thailand or Zaire, do you think?