Description
Book SynopsisThe Utopia Reader compiles primary texts from a variety of authors and movements in the history of theorizing utopias.
Utopianism is defined as the various ways of imagining, creating, or analyzing the ways and means of creating an ideal or alternative society. Prominent writers and scholars across history have long explored how or why to envision different ways of life. The volume includes texts from classical Greek literature, the Old Testament, and Plato's Republic, to Sir Thomas More's Utopia, to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and beyond. By balancing well-known and obscure examples, the text provides a comprehensive and definitive collection of the various ways Utopias have been conceived throughout history and how Utopian ideals have served as criticisms of existing sociocultural conditions.
This new edition includes many historically well-known works, little known but influential texts, and contemporary writings, providing an even more expansive coverag
Trade Review
"The Utopia Reader is the place to start a literary voyage into new futures, possible futures, and dangerous alternative futures. These well-selected readings let the reader know that there is neither a shared perfect future nor a shared perfect interpretation. Accessible and provocative." -- Jean Pfaelzer,author of The Utopian Novel in America: the Politics of a Literary Form
"How utopianto see something that was very good get better. This second edition includes an expanded introduction that addresses the complexities of defining utopia, significant additions to several sections, and an entirely new section on the 21st century that includes young adult dystopias and non-print utopias." -- Kenneth Roemer,author of Utopian Audiences
