Thinking Utopia : Steps Into Other Worlds

After the breakdown of socialist and communist systems in the East, it had become fashionable to declare the so-called "end of utopia" ("end of history," "end of narratives"). The authors of this volume do not share this view but think that it is time to rehabilitate utopian thought. The political concept of Utopia that has given its name to these transcendental projections onto the world has been too narrow to describe and analyze the moving forces of the mind perceiving human existence beyond reality. By broadening the perspectives of utopian studies, these essays enable the reader to reconstruct scholarly paradigms and strategies of utopian, complex and holistic thinking in modern cosmology, philosophy, sociology, in literary, historical and political sciences, and to compare traditions and ways of Western utopian thought to the practice in the East. Contents List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Chapter 1 The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-National Perspective PART I POLITICS, CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS OF UTOPIAN THINKING Chapter 2 Aspects of the Western Utopian Tradition Chapter 3 Visions of the Future Chapter 4 Utopia, Contractualism, Human Rights Chapter 5 On the Construction of Worlds: Technology and Economy in European Utopias PART II ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND THE ‘NEW MAN’ Chapter 6 Bodies in Utopia and Utopian Bodies in Imperial China Chapter 7 Science, Technology and Utopia: Perspectives of a Computer- Assisted Evolution of Humankind Chapter 8 ‘Thinking about the Unthinkable’: The Virtual as a Place of Utopia Chapter 9 Natural Utopianism in Everyday Life Practice – An Elementary Theoretical Model PART III MUSEUM AS UTOPIAN LABORATORY Chapter 10 Haunted by Things: Utopias and Their Consequences Chapter 11 Art – Museum – Utopia: Five Themes on an Epistemological Construction Site Chapter 12 Art, Science, Utopia in the Early Modern Period Chapter 13 Utopiary PART IV UTOPIA AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Chapter 14 The Utopian Vision, East and West Chapter 15 Trauma: A Dystopia of the Spirit Chapter 16 From Revolutionary to Catastrophic Utopia Chapter 17 The Narrative Staging of Image and Counter-Image: On the Poetics of Literary Utopias Chapter 18 Rethinking Utopia: A Plea for a Culture of Inspiration Notes on Contributors Index The final bankruptcy of the great socialist experiment in Eastern Europe appeared to sound a death knell for utopian thought. In 'Thinking Utopia' an effort is made to rehabilitate the concept of political utopia, arguing that utopian ideas continue to be relevant in the modern world