Trans/Forming Utopia - Volume I

Is the utopian project dead? Is it possible to imagine a utopian society or a utopian world in the aftermath of the collapse of ideologies? This book contains fifteen essays which are the result of the 7th International Conference of Utopian Studies held in Spain in 2006, either debating the subject, or suggesting alternative readings to some of the theoretical ideas raised within utopian studies. The title of the volume suggests that the idea or dream of utopia is indeed very important, but that the framework and boundaries of the concept are fast changing. The contributors to this first volume of essays write from different countries and represent different standpoints. Their discussions focus on the analysis of films, political theories, utopian projects of the past and present, and an insight into the dialectics of global movements.

Autorentext

The Editor: Elizabeth Russell is a senior lecturer in British literatures and critical theory in the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain. She has published articles in the area of utopian studies, feminisms and multiculturalisms. Recent publications include Somnis d'Utopies published in Catalan (2007) and two edited volumes of essays: Caught Between Cultures: Women, Writing & Subjectivities (2002) and Loving Against the Odds: Women's Writing in English in a European Context (Peter Lang, 2006). She is also a member of two research groups: GRÈC (Gènere, raça, ètnia i classe) and T-CLAA (Transformacions Culturals i Literàries en angles i alemany).

Inhalt

Contents: Elizabeth Russell: Introduction - Jacqueline Dutton: Forever Young? French Perspectives on Ageing in Global Communities of the Future - Elvin Aydogdu: Torremolinos 73 and Namuslu: Spain and Turkey as Dystopias in the 1970s and 80s, and Their Postmodern Futures - Simona Sangiorgi: The Disney Parlance: An On-Stage Utopia Out of Backstage Dystopia - Maria Bonet/John Style: Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven: Utopian Forms and Utopian Functions - Saul Newman: Anarchism, Utopianism and the Politics of Emancipation - Henning Wrage: Ernst Bloch on the Dialectic of Human Rights - James H. Read: Universal Empowerment as a Utopian Idea - Saskia Poldervaart: The Relationship Between Anarchism, Utopianism and Feminism. Utopianism as a Strategy of Social Movements - Elizabeth Russell: No Place, No Body: Lastmanism and Lastwomanism - Francis Shor: A Better (or, Battered) World is Possible: Utopian/Dystopian Dialectics in the American Century - Sara Martín Alegre: Apocalypse Soon? The Uncertain Utopia of Steven Spielberg's Adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds - Annette M. Magid: Intricacies of Intertitles in Fritz Lang's Metropolis - Ian Donnachie: A New Moral World? International Dimensions of Owenism 1815-1830 - Maria da Conceição Meireles Pereira: Iberia and Euchronia - a Portuguese Federalist Project (1854) - Evandro Bocatto/Eloïsa Pérez de Toledo: E-learning as a Tool for Community Critical Education and Development.