Module Code - Title:
CU6012
-
UTOPIAN THEORY AND TEXTS
Year Last Offered:
2023/4
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Speak and write with a critical and cogent awareness of the history and form of utopian thought and expression (as text, social practice, and theory);
Speak and write with a critical and cogent awareness of Utopia as an object of study and a method of social interrogation and social production;
Speak and write with a critical and cogent awareness of the scholarly field of utopian studies;
Develop and deploy a critical and comparative analysis of utopian thought and expression (as text, social practice, or theory);
Produce well-written and correctly formatted scholarly outputs, including abstracts, annotated bibliographies, and essays.
Syllabus:
Utopianism, social dreaming, can be both a fundamental component and a critical way of understanding and changing the complex totality of economic, cultural, political, and social life. As it projects or interprets social values and practices that are better than the status quo, a utopian vision or method can be a dynamic, sometimes dangerous, tool in the processes of cultural creation and socio-political change. The module aims to develop an advanced understanding of the nature and form(s) of Utopia and the utopian method; to develop an advanced understanding of the function of Utopia and utopian theory, thought, expression, and practice in the processes of social critique and development; and to engage critically with utopian theory, thought, expression, and practice in the form of a seminar presentation and a researched essay.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Comprehend Utopia as an object of study and a method of social interrogation and social production.
Situate and develop analyses and arguments within the scholarly field and debates of utopian studies.
Produce well-written and correctly formatted scholarly outputs, including abstracts, annotated bibliographies, and essays.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Summarize their critical and cogent awareness of the history and form of utopian thought and expression (as text, social practice, and theory).
Develop and deploy a critical and comparative analysis of utopian thought and expression (as text, social practice, or theory).
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The module will be taught by lecture, seminar discussion and by research-based critical material. Students will learn by listening to and engaging with lectures, reading primary and secondary sources (both assigned and recommended). As this is postgraduate module, a significant proportion of the workload involves self-directed research, which will be graded by continuous assessment.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Swift, J. ()
Gulliver's Travels
, Oxford
Susan Bruce, (1999)
Three Early Modern Utopias
, Oxford: Oxford Classics
Voltaire (tr. Roger Pearson) (2006)
Candide and Other Stories
, Oxford: Oxford Classics
Other Relevant Texts:
Amy Boesky (1996)
Founding Fictions: Utopias in Early Modern England
, Athens: The University of Georgia Press
Marin, Louis (1990)
Utopics. The Semiological Play of Textual Spaces
, New York: Humanity Books
Bloch, Ernst (1995)
The Principle of Hope
, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Moylan, Tom (2000)
Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science, Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia
, Boulder: Westview.
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester - Year to be First Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
mariano.paz@ul.ie