Synopses & Reviews
Radical political thought of the 20th century was dominated by utopia, but the failure of communism in Eastern Europe and its disavowal in China has brought on the need for a new model of utopian thought. This book thus seeks to redefine the concept of utopia and bring it to bear on today's politics. <br /><br />The original essays, contributed by key thinkers such as Gianni Vattimo and Jean-Luc Nancy, highlight the connection between utopian theory and practice. The book reassesses the legacy of utopia and conceptualizes alternatives to the neo-liberal, technocratic regimes prevalent in today's world. It argues that only utopia in its existential sense, grounded in the lived time and space of politics, can distance itself from mainstream ideology and not be at the service of technocratic regimes, while paying attention to the material conditions of human life.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Existential Utopia</span> offers a new and exciting interpretation of utopia in contemporary culture and a much-needed intervention into the philosophical and political discussion of utopian thinking that is both accessible to students and comprehensive. >
Synopsis
Radical political thought of the 20th century was dominated by utopia, but the failure of communism in Eastern Europe and its disavowal in China has brought on the need for a new model of utopian thought. This book thus seeks to redefine the concept of utopia and bring it to bear on today's politics.
The original essays, contributed by key thinkers such as Gianni Vattimo and Jean-Luc Nancy, highlight the connection between utopian theory and practice. The book reassesses the legacy of utopia and conceptualizes alternatives to the neo-liberal, technocratic regimes prevalent in today's world. It argues that only utopia in its existential sense, grounded in the lived time and space of politics, can distance itself from mainstream ideology and not be at the service of technocratic regimes, while paying attention to the material conditions of human life.
Existential Utopia offers a new and exciting interpretation of utopia in contemporary culture and a much-needed intervention into the philosophical and political discussion of utopian thinking that is both accessible to students and comprehensive.
About the Author
Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. He is the Associate Editor of Telos: A Quarterly Journal of Critical Thought and the author of The Event of The Thing: Derrida's Post-Deconstructive Realism (2009).
Patricia I. Vieira is Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, in the Comparative Literature Program, and in the Film and Media Studies Program of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
Table of Contents
Introduction. Utopia: A Political OntologyMichael Marder and Patrícia Vieira
PART I: Utopia Unbound1. In Place of Utopia
Jean-Luc Nancy2. Utopia, Counter-Utopia, Irony
Gianni Vattimo3. From Modern Utopias to Contemporary Uchronia
Alexandre Franco de Sá4. Existential Utopia—Of the World, the Possible, the Finite
Michael Marder and Patrícia Vieira5. Still / Encore
Márcia Cavalcante-Schuback6. The Theater of Utopia: Deleuze On Acting and Politics
Cláudia Baracchi PART II: Putting Utopia to Work7. Ernst Bloch, Utopia and Ideology Critique
Douglas Kellner8. Secularism and Post-Secularism in Roberto Unger and Ernst Bloch: Towards a Utopian Ontology
Ruth Levitas9. At the End of Utopia—Indifference
Josep Ramoneda10. History, Politics, and Utopia: Towards a Synthesis of Social Theory and Practice
Laurence Davis11. A Practical Utopia for the Twenty-First Century
Robert Albritton NotesBibliography