Thinking utopia : steps into other worlds

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Bibliographic Information

Thinking utopia : steps into other worlds

edited by Jörn Rüsen, Michael Fehr and Thomas W. Rieger

(Making sense of history)

Berghahn Books, 2005

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Joern Rusen, Michael Fehr and Thomas W. Rieger Chapter 1. The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-National Perspective Lyman Tower Sargent PART I: POLITICS, CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS OF UTOPIAN THINKING Chapter 2. Aspects of the Western Utopian Tradition Krishan Kumar Chapter 3. Visions of the Future Michael Thompson Chapter 4. Utopia, Contractualism, Human Rights Richard Saage Chapter 5. On the Construction of Worlds: Technology and Economy in European Utopias Wolfgang Pircher PART II: ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND THE 'NEW MAN' Chapter 6. Bodies in Utopia and Utopian Bodies in Imperial China Dorothy Ko Chapter 7. Science, Technology and Utopia: Perspectives of a Computer-Assisted Evolution of Humankind Klaus Mainzer Chapter 8. 'Thinking about the Unthinkable': The Virtual as a Place of Utopia Claus Pias Chapter 9. Natural Utopianism in Everyday Life Practice - An Elementary Theoretical Model Ulrich Oevermann PART III: MUSEUM AS UTOPIAN LABORATORY Chapter 10. Haunted by Things: Utopias and Their Consequences Donald Preziosi Chapter 11. Art - Museum - Utopia: Five Themes on an Epistemological Construction Site Michael Fehr Chapter 12. Art, Science, Utopia in the Early Modern Period Wolfgang Braungart Chapter 13. Utopiary Rachel Weiss PART IV: UTOPIA AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Chapter 14. The Utopian Vision, East and West Zhang Longxi Chapter 15. Trauma: A Dystopia of the Spirit Michael S. Roth Chapter 16. From Revolutionary to Catastrophic Utopia Slavoj Zizek Chapter 17. The Narrative Staging of Image and Counter-Image: On the Poetics of Literary Utopias Wilhelm Vosskamp Chapter 18. Rethinking Utopia: A Plea for a Culture of Inspiration Joern Rusen Notes on Contributors Index

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Details

  • NCID
    BA73133858
  • ISBN
    • 157181440X
  • LCCN
    2004045085
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xii, 312 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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