The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature PDF Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828428
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Since the publication of Thomas More's genre-defining work Utopia in 1516, the field of utopian literature has evolved into an ever-expanding domain. This Companion presents an extensive historical survey of the development of utopianism, from the publication of Utopia to today's dark and despairing tendency towards dystopian pessimism, epitomised by works such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Chapters address the difficult definition of the concept of utopia, and consider its relation to science fiction and other literary genres. The volume takes an innovative approach to the major themes predominating within the utopian and dystopian literary tradition, including feminism, romance and ecology, and explores in detail the vexed question of the purportedly 'western' nature of the concept of utopia. The reader is provided with a balanced overview of the evolution and current state of a long-standing, rich tradition of historical, political and literary scholarship.

The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature PDF Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828428
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the publication of Thomas More's genre-defining work Utopia in 1516, the field of utopian literature has evolved into an ever-expanding domain. This Companion presents an extensive historical survey of the development of utopianism, from the publication of Utopia to today's dark and despairing tendency towards dystopian pessimism, epitomised by works such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Chapters address the difficult definition of the concept of utopia, and consider its relation to science fiction and other literary genres. The volume takes an innovative approach to the major themes predominating within the utopian and dystopian literary tradition, including feminism, romance and ecology, and explores in detail the vexed question of the purportedly 'western' nature of the concept of utopia. The reader is provided with a balanced overview of the evolution and current state of a long-standing, rich tradition of historical, political and literary scholarship.

Dreams & Realities

Dreams & Realities PDF Author: Annette Gomis Van Heteren
Publisher: Universidad Almería
ISBN: 9788482400808
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
The present book contains a collection of essays by the members of the research group "Estudios de Narrativa en Lengua Inglesa. Historia, crítica, utopía y ciencia ficción." Its members teach English literature at the Universities of Almería and Granada and share a common interest in literary utopias. There is an introductory chapter by the Director of the Group, Miguel Martínez, on definitions and backgrounds of utopian criticism, followed by Margarita Carretero's analysis of J.R.R.Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings from the perspective of the utopian genre; then two essays by Annette Gomis on George Orwell's 1984; Mervyn Smale explores Dickens' social satire in his earliest works of fiction while Celia Wallhead is the author of the two concluding chapters on Hard Times and Nice Work, and on Babel Tower. Annette Gomis, B.A. (Trinity College), M.Sc. (Aston) & Ph.D. (Granada), teaches English at the University of Almería and has previously lectured at the Universities of Valencia and Granada. Miguel Martínez, M.A. (Granada), ACEFL (Salford) and Ph.D.(Bologna) is, since 1996, Professor of English at UALM. He has been a Fulbright Fellow at Yale and Visiting Professor at the University of Delaware.

The Renaissance Utopia

The Renaissance Utopia PDF Author: Chloë Houston
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317017978
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
A study of European utopias in context from the early years of Henry VIII’s reign to the Restoration, this book is the first comprehensive attempt since J. C. Davis’ Utopia and the Ideal Society (1981) to understand the societies projected by utopian literature from Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) to the political idealism and millenarianism of the mid-seventeenth century. Where Davis concentrated on understanding utopias historically, Renaissance Utopia also seeks to make sense of utopia as a literary form, offering both a new typology of utopia and a new history of European humanist utopianism. This book examines how the utopia was transformed from an intellectual exercise in philosophical interrogation to a serious means of imagining practical social reform. In doing so it argues that the relationship between Renaissance utopia and Renaissance dialogue is crucial; the utopian mode of discourse continued to make use of aspects of dialogue even when the dialogue form itself was in decline. Exploring the ways in which utopian texts assimilated dialogue, Renaissance Utopia complements recent work by historians and literary scholars on early modern communities by providing a thorough investigation of the issues informing a way of modelling a very particular community and literary mode - the utopia.

The Last Utopians

The Last Utopians PDF Author: Michael Robertson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691202869
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
The Last Utopians delves into the biographies of four key figures--Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman--who lived during an extraordinary period of literary and social experimentation. The publication of Bellamy's Looking Backward in 1888 opened the floodgates of an unprecedented wave of utopian writing. Morris, the Arts and Crafts pioneer, was a committed socialist whose News from Nowhere envisions a workers' Arcadia. Carpenter boldly argued that homosexuals constitute a utopian vanguard. Gilman, a women's rights activist and the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," wrote numerous utopian fictions, including Herland, a visionary tale of an all-female society. These writers, Robertson shows, shared a belief in radical equality, imagining an end to class and gender hierarchies and envisioning new forms of familial and romantic relationships. They held liberal religious beliefs about a universal spirit uniting humanity. They believed in social transformation through nonviolent means and were committed to living a simple life rooted in a restored natural world. And their legacy remains with us today, as Robertson describes in entertaining firsthand accounts of contemporary utopianism, ranging from Occupy Wall Street to a Radical Faerie retreat.

Science Fiction

Science Fiction PDF Author: Brian Baker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137474459
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This Guide summarises the main critical trends and developments surrounding the popular genre of science fiction. Brian Baker reviews the attempts to formulate a critical history, connects the major developments with the rise of theoretical paradigms such as feminism and postmodernism, and introduces key critical texts and major critics.

Victorian Studies

Victorian Studies PDF Author: Sharon W. Propas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317216474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
First published in 2006, this work is a valuable guide for the researcher in Victorian Studies. Updated to include electronic resources, this book provides guides to catalogs, archives, museums, collections and databases containing material on the Victorian period. It organises the vast array of reference sources by discipline to help researchers tailor their investigations.

The Scarlet Empire

The Scarlet Empire PDF Author: David Maclean Parry
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809323418
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
Successful businessman David M. Parry wrote The Scarlet Empire in 1906, a time when dystopian and utopian novels were sufficiently popular in the United States and Great Britain that dozens were published in each country. Utopian fiction described perfect societies, usually socialistic and communitarian. Dystopian novels depicted degenerate societies, often occurring from the same approaches. In their introduction to this reprint, historians Jerome M. Clubb and Howard W. Allen argue that Parry's novel and others like it display the opinions, feelings, and reactions of different sects of society at the turn of the century. Rapid changes in the United States caused mixed emotions about the future of the country. Many novels like The Scarlet Empire were used to criticize current measures, investigate proposed reform, and show these proposals in either a negative or a positive light. One of the most popular utopian novels of the time, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, was written with the intention of promoting the reconciliation of equality and liberty. Bellamy's novel advocated a socialist government, a perfect utopian society with equality for men, women, and children, consolidated businesses, and strict government control. Clubb and Allen observe that these changes directly reflect reforms that were being proposed by the younger generation at the turn of the century. The Scarlet Empire is said to be a direct response to Looking Backward. Itis intended as a supplemental text in American history, American studies, and popular culture courses. Eight original illustrations by Hermann C. Wall enhance the text.

The Nowhere Bible

The Nowhere Bible PDF Author: Frauke Uhlenbruch
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110414279
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The Bible contains passages that allow both scholars and believers to project their hopes and fears onto ever-changing empirical realities. By reading specific biblical passages as utopia and dystopia, this volume raises questions about reconstructing the past, the impact of wishful imagination on reality, and the hermeneutic implications of dealing with utopia – “good place” yet “no place” – as a method and a concept in biblical studies. A believer like William Bradford might approach a biblical passage as utopia by reading it as instructions for bringing about a significantly changed society in reality, even at the cost of becoming an oppressor. A contemporary biblical scholar might approach the same passage with the ambition of locating the historical reality behind it – finding the places it describes on a map, or arriving at a conclusion about the social reality experienced by a historical community of redactors. These utopian goals are projected onto a utopian text. This volume advocates an honest hermeneutical approach to the question of how reliably a past reality can be reconstructed from a biblical passage, and it aims to provide an example of disclosing – not obscuring – pre-suppositions brought to the text.

Intelligent Human Systems Integration

Intelligent Human Systems Integration PDF Author: Waldemar Karwowski
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319738887
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 791

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Book Description
This book reports on research on innovative human systems integration and human-machine interaction, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and automation, as well as computational modeling and simulation. It covers a wide range of applications in the area of design, construction and operation of products, systems and services, including lifecycle development and human-technology interaction. The book describes advanced methodologies and tools for evaluating and improving interface usability, new models, as well as case studies and best practices in virtual, augmented and mixed reality systems, with a special focus on dynamic environments. It also discusses different factors concerning the human, hardware, and artificial intelligence software. Based on the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Intelligent Human Systems Integration (IHSI 2018), held on January 7-9, 2018, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the book also examines the forces that are currently shaping the nature of computing and cognitive systems, such as the need for decreasing hardware costs; the importance of infusing intelligence and automation, and the related trend toward hardware miniaturization and power reduction; the necessity for a better assimilation of computation in the environment; and the social concerns regarding access to computers and systems for people with special needs. It offers a timely survey and a practice-oriented reference guide to policy- and decision-makers, human factors engineers, systems developers and users alike.

Historical Dictionary of Socialism

Historical Dictionary of Socialism PDF Author: James C. Docherty
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810864770
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Primarily concerned with the historical roots and contemporary condition of socialism, the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Socialism offers information on writers, activists, ideas, political parties, institutions, and movements that sought_and in many cases are still seeking_to change the social and political order. It reflects the diversity in the broad movement of the left, the many variants of which include reformist social democracy, revolutionary Marxism, the New Left, and contemporary anti-capitalism. Taking up where the first edition left off, this thoroughly revised dictionary shows how socialism has been reacting, reforming and also expanding. This is done through a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and a cross-referenced dictionary section with 114 new entries, some on the current leadership, others on the many new parties of Central and Eastern Europe and the Third World, and yet others on the reaction to globalization. This book will provide a mine of information for teachers and students of political ideologies, comparative politics, political sociology, labor history, and political theory.