Choosing Utopia
Reading, Interpretation, Agency
Will be published approx. on 4. February 2027
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-350-64038-2 (ISBN)
Description
Through autobiographical and theoretical reflections, as well as literary and cultural essays from across his career, Tom Moylan reviews his personal, political and professional trajectory of choosing, and becoming, utopian. An exploration of the relationship between vocation and activism, in Choosing Utopia Moylan offers a threaded narrative composed of memoir and theoretical and methodological explication. Beginning with an account of his reading practice and its relationship to an increasingly self-conscious use of interpretation, the book then traces the entwined activities of writing and political activism across three decades. Following up this review, Moylan presents an integrated series of literary and cultural essays exemplifying the utopian quest.
With an emphasis on the development of a utopian hermeneutic practice and how it can offer a barrier to, and opportunity for, radical utopian agency, Choosing Utopia is a timely, holistic reflection on how humanity can confront and transform the conditions produced by environmental, economic, political, and cultural crises.
With an emphasis on the development of a utopian hermeneutic practice and how it can offer a barrier to, and opportunity for, radical utopian agency, Choosing Utopia is a timely, holistic reflection on how humanity can confront and transform the conditions produced by environmental, economic, political, and cultural crises.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Laminated cover
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
409 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-64038-2 (9781350640382)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Tom Moylan is Professor Emeritus in the School of English, Irish, and Communication and founder of the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He has published monographs, edited volumes, and essays on utopianism. His most recent book iss Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Content
Foreword: A "World Not Yet Finished," Patricia McManus
Acknowledgements
Permissions
Reflection: Reading Utopia, Choosing Utopia.
I. Disturbing the Universe
II. 1950 to 1961, Different Drums: Vocation, Exploration, Expression
Writing and other work up to 1961
III. 1961 to 1968, Politics of Choice: Activism, Teaching, Writing
Writing and other work, 1961 to 1968
IV. 1968 to 1981, Long March: Community, Engagement
Writing and other work, 1968 to 1981
V. 1981 and Forward, Critical Utopian Pathways
VI. Essays and Contexts, 1973 to 2024
Essays.
1. The Dialectics of Rebellion in Thomas M. Disch's Camp Concentration
2. Ideological Contradiction in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
3. Ideology in the Age of Reagan
4. Anticipatory Fiction: Bread and Wine and Liberation Theology
5. Global Economy, Local Texts: Utopian/Dystopian Tension in William Gibson's Cyberpunk Trilogy
6. People or Markets: Some Thoughts on Cultural Studies and Corporate Studies
7. Locating Utopia in Notes from a Coma
8. Stranger in a Familiar Land: Utopian Method in Marleen Gorris's Antonia's Line
9. Transgressive, Totalizing, Transformative: Utopia's Utopian Surplus
10. Reaffirming the Negative Function of Utopian Praxis
Afterword: "Politics, Culture, and the Production of the Utopian Subject," Antonis Balasopoulos
Notes
References
Moylan Bibliography
Index: titles, authors
Acknowledgements
Permissions
Reflection: Reading Utopia, Choosing Utopia.
I. Disturbing the Universe
II. 1950 to 1961, Different Drums: Vocation, Exploration, Expression
Writing and other work up to 1961
III. 1961 to 1968, Politics of Choice: Activism, Teaching, Writing
Writing and other work, 1961 to 1968
IV. 1968 to 1981, Long March: Community, Engagement
Writing and other work, 1968 to 1981
V. 1981 and Forward, Critical Utopian Pathways
VI. Essays and Contexts, 1973 to 2024
Essays.
1. The Dialectics of Rebellion in Thomas M. Disch's Camp Concentration
2. Ideological Contradiction in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
3. Ideology in the Age of Reagan
4. Anticipatory Fiction: Bread and Wine and Liberation Theology
5. Global Economy, Local Texts: Utopian/Dystopian Tension in William Gibson's Cyberpunk Trilogy
6. People or Markets: Some Thoughts on Cultural Studies and Corporate Studies
7. Locating Utopia in Notes from a Coma
8. Stranger in a Familiar Land: Utopian Method in Marleen Gorris's Antonia's Line
9. Transgressive, Totalizing, Transformative: Utopia's Utopian Surplus
10. Reaffirming the Negative Function of Utopian Praxis
Afterword: "Politics, Culture, and the Production of the Utopian Subject," Antonis Balasopoulos
Notes
References
Moylan Bibliography
Index: titles, authors