The Individual and Utopia: A Multidisciplinary Study of Humanity and Perfection

356 Pages·2015·2.422 MB·English

by  Clint Jones, Cameron Ellis

THE INDIVIDUAL AND UTOPIA
To my family and friends who continue to support me and make it possible
for me to be successful in my personal and public endeavors. May you all,
one day, realize you are perfect.
For Nan
The Individual and Utopia
A Multidisciplinary Study of Humanity and Perfection
Edited by
CLINT JONES
Eastern Kentucky University, USA
CAMERON ELLIS
Trent University, Canada
First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Clint Jones, Cameron Ellis and the contributors 2015
Clint Jones and Cameron Ellis have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Jones, Clint.
The individual and utopia : a multidisciplinary study of humanity and perfection / by
Clint Jones and Cameron Ellis.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-2894-3 (hardback)
1. Utopias—History. 2. Individualism—History.
3. Communities—History. 4. Perfection—History. I. Ellis, Cameron. II. Title.
HX806.J66 2015
335’.02—dc23
2014030874
ISBN: 9781472428943 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315556758 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
Clint Jones and Cameron Ellis
PART I ConTexTuAlIzIng The IndIvIduAl And uToPIA
1 The Individual’s Place in Paradise: The Limits, Promise, and
Role of Reason in Modern Conceptions of Utopia 11
Charles Joshua Horn
2 Fundamental Oppositions: Utopia and the Individual 27
Mark Jendrysik
3 The Individual and the City: Abstract and Concrete 45
Nathaniel Coleman
4 “Between the Utopian and the Primitive Horns of His Dilemma”:
Aldous Huxley’s Selection of Peter Kropotkin over T.H. Huxley for
the Savage’s “Third Alternative” in a Revised Brave New World 67
Clifford T. Manlove
5 Owenite Architecture and Urban Rationality: Notes and
Reflections on Class and Utopia 85
José Ramón Álvarez Layna, Andrés Maidana Legal and
Iván Vélez Cipriano
6 Mrs Atwood and the Utopian Tradition: A Nineteenth-Century
Alchemist as Utopian Theorist 99
Kerry E. Koitzsch
vi The Individual and Utopia
PART II MInd, Body, Soul, And The uToPIAn IndIvIduAl
7 The Empathetic Turn: The Relationship of Empathy to the
Utopian Impulse 117
Nancy L. Nester
8 Solipsism and Utopia: Fredric Brown, Charles Yu,
Ludwig Wittgenstein 133
Frank Cioffi
9 Foucault, Film and the Utopian Body 149
Alice Leroy
10 Etherotopia or a Country in the Mind: Bridging the Gap
between Utopias and Nirvanas 165
Christos Callow Jr.
11 City of God: On the Longing for Architectonic Perfection,
a Reminder by Uriel Birnbaum 179
Kyle Dugdale
12 Theosis: Between Personal and Universal Utopia 201
Tamara Prosic
PART III MARgInAlIzed And AlTeRnATIve
InTeRPReTATIonS of The IndIvIduAl And uToPIA
13 Eutopias and Dis-Topias: Re-Imagining the Citizen of
Ideal Societies 225
Clint Jones and Jen Rinaldi
14 Abject Utopianism: On the Silence, Apathy, and Drifting of
Psychic Life in Samuel R. Delany’s Hogg 243
Cameron Ellis
15 The New Mobile Subject: Space, Agency, and Ownership
in the Techno-Utopian Age 259
Judy Ehrentraut
16 The Philosopher’s Solitude 279
Marco Lauri
Contents vii
17 Ubuntu is Utopia: The Individual and the Community in the
Work of Nelson Mandela 295
Mark Malisa and Michelle McAnuff-Gumbs
18 Religion and the Mental Utopia in Literature 315
Mark S. Ferrara
Index 331
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List of Figures
3.1 Piazza del Campidoglio (view toward Palazzo del Senatore),
Rome, Italy (1539–92). Architect: Michelangelo.
Source: Photo by author. 47
3.2 Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II (the Vittoriano),
Rome, Italy (1885–1911). Architect: Count Giuseppe Sacconi.
Source: Photo by author. 47