DHUM 25A09 - Utopian and Dystopian Visions in Literature, Film and the Arts

The terms ‘utopia' and ‘dystopia' have been cropping up with greater frequency these days, be they used in reference to popular and/or powerful works of fiction or art, or to growing political discourse about a society heading in the ‘right' or ‘wrong' direction, or to current social, environmental and health issues, including the current worldwide pandemic, that have us either looking toward some ideal future or, more often, dreading things will get much worse. However, the notions of ‘utopia' and ‘dystopia' have been around for centuries and have played a key role in the development of societies throughout that long, storied development. The class will be transdisciplinary and deal with utopian and dystopian visions in literature, painting, film, television and political discourse both past and present. The course will successively cover the main themes and concerns of these various ‘schools' of utopia (alotopias, primitivism, Robinsonades, blueprint utopias, etc.) and dystopia (far-right and far-left politics, populism and demagoguery, fear of new technologies, fear of government censorship, dark anti-feminist visions of the future, fear of the growing need for conformity and political correctness, fear of growing crime and violence, etc.). As Erika Gottlieb has recently pointed out, Utopian and Dystopian art is often incorrectly regarded as a purely Western phenomenon, as most of its key works we reference today are by British, American and Canadian authors. However, this class will seek to open up that vision of dystopian art to include key names from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. In addition, student projects will further expand the scope of the class into other cultures. In-class student projects will include presentations in which students will be given a general theme related to dystopia and asked to present four works on that theme from various cultures and countries of origin (a work of literature, a painting, a film or television series and a current political debate), carefully drawing a connection between them. As the class will be done mainly online, due to the pandemic, students will be recording themselves and putting together a video-presentation for each group presentation. Special set-up during the Covid-19 pandemic: Students should note that in keeping with Sciences Po guidelines, this course will be offered in hybrid form, with half of the students in class and the other half following remotely each week. The professor will also provide students with a shared website from which they can follow links to videos and PDFs of the weekly lessons in case they miss them. Certain elements of this format may change over time, in accordance with the development of the pandemic itself and that of Science Po's related teaching guidelines.

Dennis TREDY

Séminaire

English

Autumn 2021-2022

Grading is based on Continuous Assessment and breaks down as follows: 30-minute In-Class Presentation: 30% Two-Part Comprehensive Final Exam: 35% One Written Homework Assignment: 25% In-Class Participation: 10%