How does vicariously experiencing radically better (or worse) imaginary worlds change our perceptions of the past, present, and future? The seminar will address this question with a highly selective introduction to utopian expression. We begin with the grandfather of the genre, Thomas More s Utopia, and its Classical, Arcadian, and religious roots. Next we examine 18th-century unambiguous and satirical spatial and time travel utopias (Defoe, Mercier, Schnabel, Swift) and the paradigmatic 19th-century utopia, Edward Bellamy s Looking Backward, in the contexts of William Morris s response, the utopian satire of Samuel Butler’s satiric Erehwon, and Black Elk / Neihardt s reconstruction of a Lakota vision. The variety of 20th- and 21st-century utopian and dystopian expression will be suggested in examinations of classic and recent dystopias (Zamiatin, Huxley, Orwell, and Cormac McCarthy), psychological eupsychias (B.F. Skinner and Abraham Maslow), ecotopias (Callenbach and the White Hawk, Texas community vs. Disney World), and feminist utopias (Gilman, Piercy, and Le Guin).
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Kenneth M. ROEMER
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Professor, Department of English, University of Texas at Arlington | |
Chair | |
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Wilhelm VOSSKAMP
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Professor für Literaturwissenschaft und Neuere deutsche Literatur, Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Literatur, Universität zu Köln | |
Chair | |
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Professor, Department of English, University of Texas at Arlington
| 1969-1970 | Assistant Editor, American Quarterly & Teaching Assistant, American, Civ., University of Pennsylvania |
| 1971-1974 | Assistant Professor |
| 1974-1982 | Associate Professor |
| 1975-1977 | Assistant Dean, Graduate School, University of Texas at Arlington |
| 1982-1983 | Visiting Professor, Shimane University, Japan |
| since 1988 | Visiting Professor, International Christian University, Japan & Senior Scientiest Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science |
| since 1982 | Professor of English, University of Texas at Arlington |
| since 1998 | Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Arlington |
Professor für Literaturwissenschaft und Neuere deutsche Literatur, Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Literatur, Universität zu Köln
| | Studium der Germanistik, Philosophie, Geschichte |
| 1965 | Promotion in Kiel |
| 1972 | Habilitation in Köln |
| 1972-1987 | o. Prof. für Literaturwissenschaft, Bielefeld |
| 1978-1982 | Direktor am Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung |
| seit 1987 | o. Prof. für Neuere deutsche Literatur, Köln |
| 1999-2004 | Direktor am Kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschungskolleg, Köln |
| | Gastprofessuren in den USA, Israel, Frankreich, Brasilien, Australien, Schweiz |
