HIST-LIT 90HR: Urban Utopias and Dystopias

Instructor: Emily Roche
Meeting time: Thursday, 12:45-2:45 pm

The word utopia—literally, “no-place”—was coined by Thomas More in 1516. The emergence of the word marks a significant point in literary history, but speculative dreaming of idealized societies far predates More’s era. Since ancient times, humans have dreamed of perfect worlds and conceptualized the societal changes that would be required to bring about radical change: who would live in these societies? What kinds of places would they inhabit, and what would their environments be like? How would they interact with one another, and what systems of power would rule them? With the advent of modern society in the early twentieth century, authors increasingly turned their attention to the anxieties of social control and conformity contained in the utopian vision and produced texts commenting on the dangers of perfection, creating narratives of dystopia, or “the bad place.” This seminar will introduce students to the long history of utopian and dystopian thinking, starting in the ancient Mediterranean world and tracing an intellectual tradition of political commentary, speculative fiction, and imaginative world-building that continues today. Students will examine the historical context of various strands of utopian and dystopian thought, focusing in particular on how cities and urban centers have provided fertile ground for speculative thinking and understanding how spatial concepts such as segregation, incarceration, and urban destruction have been seen as tools for major social change by writers, filmmakers, urban planners, and political leaders alike.