LITR 5737 Literary & Historical Utopias

Tuesday, 12 June: Anthem

Tuesday, 12 June: Anthem

Historical presentation: Brouke M. Rose-Carpenter (feminist utopias)

Discussion-starter: Tish Wallace

Thursday, 14 June: Anthem

Historical presentation: Amy Braselton: Islamic utopias or utopias gone too far

Roundtable discussion on midterms

Monday, 18 June: midterm

Tuesday, 19 June: selections from Genesis & Revelation; the Book of Acts; Plato’s Republic; American founding documents

Historical presentation: Heaven as utopia?—Cindy Goodson

Preview of Dr. King’s Dream Speech: Liz Davis

Historical presentation +- Web review: Kibbutzim of Israel: Gordon Lewis

Thursday, 21 June: alternative or multicultural utopias: selections from African American slave narratives; Dr. King’s Dream Speech; Toni Morrison’s Paradise; speech by Chief Seattle;

Historical presentation: Donny L. Leveston (open choice)

Discussion-starter: Carlos Castillo

Web review: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists: Carmen Ashby

Monday, 25 June: begin Ecotopia

Historical presentation: sixties utopian movements—Ruth Pilarte

Historical presentation +- web review: Auroville: Carlos Castillo

Tuesday, 26 June: Instructor leads with page samples from Toni Morrison’s Paradise (African American novel with utopian themes) and two virtual-reality novels with utopian themes (Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash [1992] and Dennis Danvers’s Circuit of Heaven [1998])

Historical presentation: virtual utopias or Rainbow Gatherings: Danny Wankan

Web review: Ernest Callenbach sites on course webpage: Ruth Pilarte

Thursday, 28 June: conclude Ecotopia

Discussion-starter: Cindy Goodson

Historical presentation: Amish community / lifestyle: Kristen Bird

Historical presentation: New Urbanism: Yvonne Hopkins

Monday, 2 July: final exam due by Tuesday, 3 July at noon.

Women's retreats

Greenfire

Akashavana

First Women Foundation (Minnesota)

The Grove

How are these like / unlike a woman's utopia or commune?

terms for Rand & Anthem

examples of "human unit"

More: utopia = nation as family

Gilman: women of Herland "think in we's"

Bellamy, Looking Backward, "Mr. Barton's Sermon" ch. 26:

"reaction of a changed environment upon human nature . . . a society which was founded on the pseudo-self-interest of selfishness . . . has been replaced by institutions based on the true self-interest of a rational unselfishness, and appealing to the social and generous instincts of men."

"the means of subsistence distributed from a common stock as among children at the father's table"

history for Rand & Anthem

3g. What is utopia’s relation to time and history? Does a utopia stop time, as with the millennial rapture or an idea of perfection? Or can utopias change, evolve, and adapt to the changes of history?

3h. Since our major texts are all set in North America, what is the relation of Utopia to America? What problems does the USA’s cultural context present for discussing utopian issues? (Especially contexts of the Cold War, the collapse of Marxist-Stalinist Communism, the ascendance of religious and freemarket fundamentalism, and stress on the family?)

Our texts within Western and American history:

Vii Objectivist philosophy integrates facts with values . . . the actual nature of man with an exalted and secular admiration for it

Objective 3: Given the fact that utopian communities always fail (usually sooner rather than later), what historical critique of utopias is possible beyond “They don’t work” or “It’s futile?” (For instance, the fact that utopias always fail depends on the prior fact that people continue to imagine or attempt utopias.)

expand the realm of thinkable

the possible won't be exactly same as thinkable

but loosens human development from present and from chains of "human nature"

dialectic: utopian impulse forces questions of ideal human society

Anthem

By: Tish Wallace

Objective 2b: “Anthem has a story, but not a plot, i.e., not a progression of events leading inexorably to an action-climax and a resolution.  The closest thing to a climax in Anthem, the hero’s discovery of the word I, is not an existential action, but an internal event, a process of cognition – which is, besides, partly accidental (it is not fully necessitated by the earlier events of the story).” –pg. vii

• What about this conclusion? Agree or disagree? Why or why not? What problems, if any, of plot or narrative rise from this text? What genre variations derive from these problems with plot?

Rand’s characters are defined as “we”.  As such, the characters are given group names instead of individual names to form a distinction between groups.  These names are symbolic: Fraternity, Collective, Democracy, Unamity, Alliance, International, etc.  What meaning do these names carry within this text? What about the joining of Liberty 5-3000 and Equality 7-2521? Liberty and equality are puzzle pieces that fit together because of their interdependence.  Is Rand trying to make a statement here? *Rand believes that freedom is defined as being free from one’s brothers (pg. 101).

Objective 3b: Are utopian impulses limited to socialism and communism, or may freemarket capitalism also express itself in utopian terms and visions? Is utopia “progressive / liberal” or “reactionary / conservative?” What relations between “self and other” are modeled?

from Anthem:

“And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner.  The word which will not die, should we all perish in battle.  The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory.  The sacred word: EGO” (pg. 105). 

In Anthem there is an allusion to the supposed corruption of individualism (solitude).  This corruption can be summarized in one word: ego.  Ego is pivotal in the distinction between collectivism and individualism; thus, it is an “unmentionable word.”  Speaking this unmentionable word is in fact the only crime punished by death in this community.  How is collectivism and the suppression of individualism handled in this community? I.e., what relations to self and other are modeled in this text?  This leads to objective 4a: (What academic subjects or disciplines are involved with utopian studies? Examples: literature, history, sociology, economics, architecture, urban planning?)

This text involves the objectivist philosophy.  How does self and other fit into the ideals of objectivism? What role does Christianity play, if at all, in objectivism? What other subjects or disciplines are involved?

Background information on Objectivism

“Objectivism is an integrated system of thought that defines the abstract principles by which a man must think and act if he is to live the life proper to man.  These principles are metaphysics (objective reality), epistemology (reason), ethics (self-interest), and politics (capitalism).”  Or, quite simply, the actual nature of man with an exalted and secular admiration for it. 

Objective 2a: As Donny stated in his web presentation, this novel seems to be a dystopia turned utopia.  What kinds of stories rise from or fit with the attempt to describe an ideal or dystopian community? I found resemblances to the Adam and Eve story.  Adam and Eve did not realize that they were naked until they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge.  The main characters in this text went through a similar experience: acquisition of knowledge opened their eyes to true corruption of their community.  When these characters first begin learning and retaining information they hid (like Adam did from God) because they knew that what they had discovered was considered a “sin” in their community.  Eventually their discovery led to their voluntary exile from the community.  In the Adam and Eve story, Adam and Eve were given consequences for their actions, i.e. toiling the land. 

What are the resemblances to other texts and/or intentional communities?

Objective 3g: What is utopia’s relation to time and history? Does a utopia stop time, as with the millennial rapture or an idea of perfection? Or can utopias change, evolve, and adapt to the changes of history?

The millennial (end times) began with the worship of the word we “He gave up all he had won, and fell lower than his savage beginning.  What brought it to pass? What disaster took their reason away from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word “We.” Can utopias change, evolve, and adapt to changes of history? Would it be proper to assume that Rand believes that there was a second millennial with the worship of the word I?. 

Discussion topics for Genesis & Revelation

What is the relationship of the Apocalypse in Revelation to the earlier utopia of Eden and the later utopia of Heaven?

assignments for Anthem

Monday:

read introduction to Anthem, esp. questions of genre on pp. vii-viii

read through p. 77 (through ch. VII) at least

Tuesday:

complete Anthem (through ch. XII, p. 105)

Discussion of Anthem:

compare / contrast to utopian texts

What do the utopias scant or blur that Rand develops?

dystopia or counter-utopia?

Resemblance to other dystopias or satirical utopias like Brave New World, Nineteen Eight-Four, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies

Dystopia as "inversion" of utopia? (i. e., does dystopia simply turn utopia on its head, or inside out?)

Why do Americans and American schools emphasize dystopias or satirical utopias?

Conclusion to Anthem: does it expose the upsides of utopia?

Instructor's view of Ayn Rand

Personal history: When in high school in late 60s I knew a family of serious conservatives, who at the time were regarded with the same sense of eccentricity as liberals are regarded today. The lady of the house (a realtor) knew my interest in literature and gave me a copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. 

I read it and was a little intrigued but more perplexed and challenged. 

Intrigued: The writing had a raw power that I've since compared to that of Theodore Dreiser or Eugene O'Neill:

titanic, driven characters

a heavy obviousness that sometimes breaks through to a higher level.

Perplexed and challenged: Around the same time I heard a speech by Ronald Reagan and felt similarly.

Most of my moral education had been that selfishness and the pursuit of personal wealth and power came naturally to human beings. Such qualities had to be recognized but not encouraged or glorified.

Instead of repressing such feelings, both Rand and Reagan seemed to elevate them to a heroic level. 

Overall I backed off for the same reason I remain what others call a liberal or leftist but which I associate simply with intellectual morality as I've seen it modeled and as I've aspired. Namely, I learn little from celebrating or exploiting what is already known or accomplished. Selfishness and greed / ambition may be a given of human existence, but they're only interesting insofar as they can be transformed to something finer, higher, more liberating. Also Reagan and Rand seemed to enjoy an odd sense of intellectual superiority, proclaiming not a special knowledge but a plain, simple, common-sense knowledge that others were inferior for not sharing.

So an early acquaintance with Rand followed by a combined respect and wariness.

Mostly saw Rand being read in airports--seemed to send a signal to other passengers much like reading The Wall Street Journal, namely: I'm not just a traveler but someone who's on serious business.

Otherwise Ayn Rand Institute very active, constantly contacting profs about contests, scholarships, or writing "letters to the editor" like Matt Mayo showed us on our first day.

Overall, ways to describe Ayn Rand academically.

Popular philosopher. As with many popular philosophers, she's not taken very seriously in academic philosophy. A popular following may begin to resemble a cult-of-personality.

Intellectual influence on Conservative Movement of late 20th-early 21st centuries.

Libertarian, freemarket, small-government or anti-government conservatism.

Not religious conservatism, though possibly compatible

Romantic individualism taken to extremes of Nietzschean Superman:

Friedrich Nietzsche

Randians may deny this connection, but Rand's themes sound like phrases and titles associated with Nietzsche:

"The Will to Power"

"Beyond Good and Evil"

Anyway, arrive at these dualities or oppositions:

Vii Objectivist philosophy integrates facts with values . . . the actual nature of man with an exalted and secular admiration for it

Objective 3: Given the fact that utopian communities always fail (usually sooner rather than later), what historical critique of utopias is possible beyond “They don’t work” or “It’s futile?” (For instance, the fact that utopias always fail depends on the prior fact that people continue to imagine or attempt utopias.)

expand the realm of thinkable

the possible won't be exactly same as thinkable

but loosens human development from present and from chains of "human nature"

dialectic: utopian impulse forces questions of ideal human society