Unland: Writing Utopias

Unland: Writing Utopias 

The word ‘Utopia’ is a combination of the Greek prefix ou—not and topos—place. In the aftermath of the Shoah, the poet Paul Celan alludes to this etymology when he writes about ‘Unland,’ referring to the desiccated status of Europe, the ‘not-yet’ of nascent political or communal formations, and the ‘no-place’ of poetry; a non-territorial laboratory for understanding and reconfiguring the world. 

This course will look at a variety of writers who generate ‘non-places’—vacuums, alternatives, blueprints—that shed new light on our lived realities. Alluring or depleted (or both), these often unreachable realms instigate critical reflection about the tragic absurdities of our own present. We will pay particular attention to how writers conceive of text as a ‘third space’ that hovers between reality and fantasy. Looking at a range of authors from early modernity to the present, this course will challenge the genre boundaries between science-fiction and canonical literature. Readings will include works by Shakespeare, Georg Büchner, Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Samuel R. Delany.

No prerequisite courses are required. Course Readings and discussion will be in English. Required Texts.