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December 2023  Spotlight  Standard Module
Mixed Lecture/Discussion • High intensity
While the idea of establishing an ‘actual’ utopia has been disparaged since the first half of the twentieth century from socio-political perspectives (e.g. the failed age of ideology from 1917-1945), literary and related cultural narratives have a long history of imagining and representing utopia (also paradise, the golden age, etc.). These utopias often function to criticize the problematic social norms and climates of their times as well as providing progressive imaginings for a better future, often based on certain ideals or virtues. In this module, we go on a chronological tour of different representations of utopia, including: the paleolithic utopia of hunter-gatherers (e.g. as discussed in Harari’s Homo Sapiens) (before 10,000 BC), the Bronze Age utopia of Minoan Crete (4000-1400 BCE), Plato’s mythical island of Atlantis (ca 400 BC), the pastoral utopia of the Roman poet Virgil (ca 40 BC), the New World utopia of Sir Thomas More (1516), the Enlightened, reasoned utopia of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Tolkien’s fantasy utopia of Númenor (ca 1940), and more.

Required Texts

There are no required texts for this module.
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Days and Times

Meeting Wednesdays & Fridays at 2:00 PM Eastern for eight 1-hour sessions on December 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29

Signum Time
US/Eastern
Note Your Time
unknown
Wed, Dec 6
2:00 PM
Fri, Dec 8
2:00 PM
Wed, Dec 13
2:00 PM
Fri, Dec 15
2:00 PM
Wed, Dec 20
2:00 PM
Fri, Dec 22
2:00 PM
Wed, Dec 27
2:00 PM
Fri, Dec 29
2:00 PM