Utopian Studies

Code:

LLC146

Acronym:

ESU

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Cultural Studies

Instance: 2023/2024 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LLC	20	Study plan	3	-	6	41	162
		Study plan	3	-	6	41	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

This is an introductory course to the field of Studies on Utopia, aiming to familiarize students with basic theoretical concepts and with literary texts where a utopian thought will be problematized. These texts will allow a contextualised discussion on the evolution of utopian thought.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the course, students should have acquired both basic knowledge in the field of Studies on Utopia and have the perception of the historical evolution of this area of studies. They should also develop the ability to read theoretical and literary texts in their relation with historical and cultural contexts.

Working method

Presencial

Program

The programme of the course will comprise four moments: a theoretical introduction; the study, through a nineteenth-century literary text, of the rhetorical strategy that instilled a utopian sense of America aimed at refusing Thomas More’s “nowhere”( the founder of utopian discursivity); a reflection on feminist speculative fiction published in the post-1960s; the study of contemporary utopian and speculative short fiction, in which issues of food, technology and society intersect.

Module 1

1. The concepts: utopia, alotopia, eutopia, euchronia, satirical utopia, dystopia, heterotopia and hyperutopia.
2. The philosophical utopia and the political utopia.
3. The four modes of utopian thinking.
4. AMERICA: A Utopian Promise.
5. Dystopia and Utopia in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Module 2

1. Contemporary Feminist Utopianism (by Lucy Sargisson) and Critical Utopia (by Tom Moylan).
2. Conceptual tools from Utopian Studies applied to post-1960 speculative fiction.
3. Distinctive features of the speculative and transgressive fiction by key women authors from the American second wave of feminisms. 

Module 3 

1. Utopian Foodways: Utopian Studies and Food Studies 
2. Utopian Imaginings of the Future: Food, Technology and Society in the 20th and 21st centuries.
3. Four trends in speculative fiction: identity, ecology, technology, and surveillance.

Mandatory literature

Octavia E. Butler; Bloodchild and other stories. ISBN: 978-1-58322-698-8
Ursula K. Le Guin; The Wind’s Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose. UK: Gollancz , Gollancz, 2015. ISBN: 9781473205765
Joanna Russ; The Hidden Side of the Moon: Stories, The Women’s Press Limited, 1989. ISBN: 978-0312011055

Complementary Bibliography

Chris Jennings; Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism, Random House, 2016. ISBN: 9780812993707
Felix Guatarri; Le trois ecologies , Galilee, 1989. ISBN: 978-2718603513
Gregory Claeys; The^Cambridge companion to utopian literature. ISBN: 978-0-521-71414-3
Jane Donawerth; Frankenstein.s daughters. ISBN: 978-0-8156-0395-5
Lyman Tower Sargent; Utopianism. ISBN: 978-0-19-957340-0
Lucy Sargisson; Contemporary feminist utopianism. ISBN: 0-415-14176-1
Maria de Fátima de Sousa Basto Vieira; E Se...? Narrativas especulativas sobre alimentação e sociedade. ISBN: 978-989-746-227-6 digital
Tom Moylan; Demand the impossible. ISBN: 978-3-0343-0752-9
Warren Belasco; Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food , University of California Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780520940468
Arthur C. Clarke; The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, Tor Books, 2001. ISBN: 978-0312878214
Sacvan Bercovitch; The^office of the Scarlet letter. ISBN: 0-8018-4203-4
Nathaniel Hawthorne; The scarlet letter. ISBN: 0-451-51188-3
Gregory Claeys; The^utopia reader. ISBN: 0-8147-1570-2

Comments from the literature

Throughout the course, specific mandatory and critical bibliography will be indicated and/or distributed to accompany the study of the selected texts.

Teaching methods and learning activities

This course will be conducted on the basis of theoretical-pratical classes. Students will be espected to adopt a produtive and active attitude both towards their study and in the classroom

Evaluation Type

Evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	100,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	75,00
Frequência das aulas	41,00
Trabalho de investigação	46,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Attending 75% of classes, unless established otherwise by law

Calculation formula of final grade

Final Exam 100%

Examinations or Special Assignments

not applicable

Internship work/project

not applicable

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to FLUP regulations.

Classification improvement

According to FLUP regulations.