Dreamworlds

In order to assist your preparation before the module starts, and to remind you once it gets underway, here is a list of media texts which will provide you with a useful vocabulary of comparison:

This module relates to a number of others within Education Studies. In terms of your experience of the third year, the module has been designed to extend your thinking about the themes of nature and society, location and agency, and childhood. We will be considering the educational significance of narratives, allegories, icons, etc. which speculatively present alternative forms of family life - and inevitably this process raises questions about our contemporary condition. The potential list of illustrative examples is very large indeed - see the web resource page.

There are two assignments for this module, each carrying the same weighting of 50%.

Assignment 2 requires a 2,500 word essay, and asks you to use Georg Simmel's short essay, 'The Metropolis and Mental Life' as a critical starting point (Simmel's text will be made available to you next week, but it can also be obtained at

1) Identify the key features of his analysis, taking particular care to draw out any educational implications that you notice (50%);

General Theoretical expositions

Albinski, N. (1988) Women's Utopias in British and American Fiction London: Routledge.

Armitt, L. (1996) Theorising the Fantastic London: Arnold.

Baker-Smith, D. (1987) Between Dream and Nature: Essays on Utopia and Dystopia Amsterdam: Editions Rodolpi.

Bloch, E. (2000) Geist der Utopie (in English) Stanford, CAL: Stanford University Press.

Bloch, E. (1970) A Philosophy of the Future New York: Herder & Herder.

Buckminster-Fuller, R. (1970) Utopia or Oblivion: the prospects for Humanity London: Allen Lane.

Buck-Morss, S. (2000) Dreamworld and Catastrophe Cam., MAS.: MIT Press.

Buck-Morss, S. (1997) Ground Control: Technology and Utopia London: Black Dog.

Buck-Morss, S. (1989) The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project Cam., MAS.: MIT Press.

Burwell, J. (1997) Notes on Nowhere: Feminism, Utopian Logic, and Social Transformation Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Claeys, G. (ed.) (1994) Utopias of the British Enlightenment Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Claeys, G. & Sargent, L. eds. (1999) The Utopia Reader New York: New York University Press.

Dator, J. ed. (2002) Advancing Futures: Future Studies in Higher Education London: Praeger.

Ferns, C. (1999) Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Goodwin, B. (1982) The Politics of Utopia: a Study in Theory and Practice London: Hutchinson.

Halpin, D. (2002) Hope and Education: the Role of the Utopian Imagination London: Routledge.

Home, S. (1991) The Assault on Culture: Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War Stirling: AK Press.

Jameson, F. (1994) The Seeds of Time New York: Columbia Press; not much on childhood here, but a major attempt to link utopian thinking with Marxist forms of analysis.

Kalin, M. (1975) Utopian Flight from Unhappiness: Freud Against Marx on Social Progress Totowa, NJ: Littlefield.

Kumar, K. (1991) Utopianism Buckingham: Open University Press; general review of the literary form.

Lasky, M. (1977) Utopia and Revolution: on the Origin of a Metaphor, or some Illustrations London: Macmillan.

Levitas, R. (1990) The Concept of Utopia Syracuse, NY.: Syracuse University Press; a more historical perspective of the evolution of the idea.

Midgley, M. (2004) The Myths We Live By London: Routledge.

Mitchell, W. (1986) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology Chicago: University of Chicago Press; a general review of the tension between visual and textual imagery in relation to ideology. His earlier work on Blake is very useful in linking the later study with utopian aspirations, as is his more recent work on dinosaurs - The Last Dinosaur Book!

Moylan, T. (2000) Scraps of the Untainted Sky Boulder, CO.: Westview Press; very useful and authoritative academic review of science fiction/utopian studies.

Tallis, R. (1997) Enemies of Hope: a Critique of Contemporary Pessimism Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Vice, S. (2000) Holocaust Fiction London: Routledge; useful analysis of literary form in relation to the speculative. With some empathy this can be usefully adapted to our purposes. N.B. The death camps have been featured as dystopian projects, and National Socialism has also been characterised as a modernist utopia. See Taylor, B. (1990) The Nazification of Art, Winchester, Winchester Press for an introduction.

Wegner, P. (2002) Imaginary Communities: Utopia, the Nation, and the Spatial Histories of Modernity Berkeley, CAL: University of California Press.

More Specialised Expositions of the Genre

Adorno, T., (1981) 'Aldous Huxley and Utopia' in Prisms Cam. Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 95-119.

Appelbaum, R. (2002) Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth Century England Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baker-Smith, D. (1991) More's Utopia London: Harper Collins.

Balsamo, A. (1996) Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Barr, M. (1987) Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.

Barr, M. (ed.) (2000) Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Boston: Rowman & Littlefield. (There is also the earlier version of this: Future Females: A Critical Anthology, (1981)).

Barrett, M. (2000) Star Trek: the Human Frontier Cambridge: Polity Press..

Berger, J. (2000) After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Bingamen, A., Sanders, L. & Zorach, R. eds. (2002) Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change and the Modern Metropolis London: Routledge.

Donawerth, J. (1997) Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Donovan, J. & Kolmerten, C. eds. (1994) Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Dunbar, R. (2004) The Human Story London: Faber & Faber; see the chapter entitled 'High Culture'.

Doughty, C. (2006) Prometheus London: Routledge; background information for Shelley's text.

Eliar-Feldon, M. (1982) Realistic Utopias: the Ideal Imaginary Societies of the Renaissance Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Guarneri, C. (1991) The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Harris, T. ed. (1996) Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek New York: Basic Books

Hill, C. (1972) The World Turned Upside Down London: Temple Smith.

Hill, C. & Dell, E. (1969) The Good Old Cause: The English Revolution of 1640 - 60, 2nd. edtn. London: Cassells.

Holloway, M. (1966) Heavens on Earth: Utopian Communities in America, 1680 - 1880 New York: Dover.

Jagose, A. (1994) Lesbian Utopias London: Routledge.

Kenyan, T. (1989) Utopian Communism and Political Thought in Early Modern England London: Pinter.

Kitchen, R. & Kneale, J. (2002) Lost in Space: Geographies of Science Fiction London: Continuum.

Olin, C. (1989) Interpreting Thomas More's 'Utopia' New York: Fordham University Press.

Plant, S. (1992) The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Post-modern Age London: Routledge.

Price, B. (ed.) (2002) Francis Bacon's 'The New Atlantis': New Interdisciplinary Essays Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Rees, C. (1996) Utopian Imagination and Eighteenth Century Fiction London: Longman.

Sargisson, L. (1996) Contemporary Feminine Utopianism London: Routledge.

Sinclair, I. (1999) Crash: David Cronenberg's Post-mortem on J. G. Ballard's Trajectory of Fate London: BFI.

Thompson, E. P. (1977) William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary, 2nd. edtn. London: Merlin.

Turnbull, G. (1947) Hartlib, Dury, and Comenius: Gleanings from Hartlib's Papers Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Zylinska, J. (2002) The Cyborg Experiments London: Continuum.

Social/Urban Demonstrations/Illustrations

Arnold, D. (2000) Re-presenting the Metropolis: Architecture, Urban Experience, and Social Life Aldershot: Ashgate.

Balshaw, M. & Kennedy, L. eds. (2000) Urban Space and Representation London: Pluto Press.

Coleman, A. (1985) Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planned Housing London: Shipman.

d'Eramo, M. (2002) The Pig and the Skyscraper, Chicago: a History of our Future London: Verso; highly recommended.

Eaton, R. (2002) Ideal Cities: Utopianism and the (Un)Built Environment London: Thames & Hudson.

Evanson, N. (1969) le Corbusier: the Machine and the Grand Design London: Studio Vista.

Fishman, R. (1977) Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard and Frank Lloyd Wright New York: Basic Books.

Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; very useful analysis of designed community.

Kagan, P. (1975) New World Utopias: a Photographic History of the Search for Community New York: Penguin.

Markus, T. (1993) Buildings and Power London: Routledge; Bentham's panopticon, and the early schools.

Ostwalt, C. (1998) Love Valley: an American Utopia Bowling Green OH: Bowling Green State University.

Power, S. (2003) A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide London: Flamingo; distributing dystopia.

Raspovitch, A. (1980) The Vanishing West: Utopian Settlements in Western Canada, 1885 - 1914 London: Canadian High Commission.

Rosenau, H. (1983) The Ideal City: its Architectural Evolution in Europe, 3rd. edtn. London: Methuen.

Sadler, S. (1999) The Situationist City Cam. MAS: MIT Press.

Schwartz, H. (1998) The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles New York: Zone; another slant on prosthetic culture.

Stargardt, N. (2005) Witnesses of War: Children Lives Under the Nazis London: Jonathan Cape; a useful compilation of the experience of the utopian/dystopian experience of children in the Third Reich.

Stoichita, V. (1999) Goya: The Last Carnival London: Reaktion; famous dystopian illustrations from the Nineteenth century.

Young, M. (1982) The Elmhirsts of Dartington: the Creation of a Utopian Community London: Routledge Kegan Paul.

Virilio, P. (2002) Crepuscular Dawn New York: Semiotext(e); dystopia and catastrophe by accident - a writer still reflecting on the Situationists and what came after.

Some general illustrations of utopian/dystopian writing available in the library which will be referenced - but see also the web resource page.

Ballard, J. G. (1995) Crash London: Vintage.

Baxter, S. (2001) Evolution, London, Gollanscz; human evolution turned into novel form! Some sections of this are more relevant than others, for our purposes chapters 17 onwards will put you in the picture.

Burgess, A. (1996 [1962]) A Clockwork Orange London: Penguin

Burroughs, E. R. (2003 [1914] ) Tarzan of the Apes New York: The Modern Library

Butler, S. (1872) Erewhon London: Trubner & Co.; good example of utopian satire relative to the late Nineteenth Century cultural context.

Defoe, D. (1960 [1723]) A Journal of the Plague Year New York: Signet; dystopian propaganda for the government of the time.

Dickens, C. (1989) Hard Times Oxford: Oxford University Press - you may remember Bitzer and Sissy Jupe.

Eliot, G. (1980) Felix Holt, the Radical Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Eliot, G. (1952) Adam Bede London: Zodiac; various insights into the fusion of schooling, religion, and utilitarianism.

Erskine-Hill, H. (1972) Pope 'The Dunciad' London: Edward Arnold; we are mainly interested in book 4, which satirises Baconian education.

Golding, W. (1954) The Lord of the Flies London: Faber & Faber; book - but also a film - striking exploration of the resurgence of 'nature' in a group of isolated children, implying a pessimistic view of the security of cultural identity.

Golding, W. (1955) The Inheritors Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Hoban, R. (2002 [1980]) Riddley Walker London: Bloomsbury.

Montaigne, M. (1958) Essays London: Penguin; pp. 105-118 ('on cannibals').

Orwell, G. (2000) Nineteen Eighty-four London: Penguin

Orwell, G. (1973) Animal Farm London: Penguin; Orwell calls this a fairy tale, but it's more like a fable.

Plato, (1965) Timaeus Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 65 - 71; chora - or the receptacle of becoming, and pp.34-38 on ancient societies (the Egyption, and Atlantis) and pp.29-31 the ideal state - a variant on the Republic.

Shakespeare, W. (2002) The Tempest Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shelley, M. (1988) Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus Harmondsworth: Penguin; essential reading, but this is very different from most of the films!

Skinner, B. F. (1976) Walden Two London: Macmillan; Behaviourist paradise!

Sterne, L. (1983) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Oxford: Oxford University Press; the one book for my desert island!

Suskind, P. (1986) Perfume: the Story of a Murderer Harmondsworth: Penguin; a striking, claustrophobic description of an unusual individual's childhood and subsequent career.

Swift, J. (1970) Gulliver's Travels New York: Norton.

Thoreau, H. D. (1972) Walden London: Dent.

Wells, H. G. (1924) A Modern Utopia London: Collins; most of his texts are in the library, but as single copies. Given the ease with which they can be obtained from the web there is not much of a problem.

Science Fiction - a specialised part of the genre.

Aldiss, B. (1958) Non-Stop London: Faber & Faber; a static 'jungle' society is slowly revealed to be contained within a starship that has been placed in isolation..

Aldiss, B. (1962) Hothouse London: Faber & Faber, another future jungle, but this time the descriptions seem to pre-figure J. G. . Ballard's work, such as his The Drowned World.

Attwood, M. (2003) Oryx and Crake London: Bloomsbury; a new species is formed by biological engineering.

Bear, G. (2000) Darwin's Radio London: HarperCollins; a new branch in human evolution begins, and we have been here before.

Bear, G. (2003) Darwin's Children London: HarperCollins; the new species of homo begins to establish itself.

Burgess, A. (1996) A Clockwork Orange London: Penguin.

Blish, J. (1972) The Seedling Stars London: Arrow; and early example of bio-engineering and transformed human cultures.

Clarke, A. (1956) The City and the Stars New York: Harcourt; book - an early critique of a static utopia, framed within a cyclic conception of development.

Crichton, M. (2002) Prey London: HarperCollins; what might happen if you play around at the nanoscale - film soon to be released.

Crichton, M. (2006) Next London: HarperCollins; particularly good insights offered for what a post-modern family might be like if the genetic revolution really takes off!

Galouye, D. (1970) Dark Universe London: Sphere; familiar character breaking out of dystopic environment to bring about change, but a particularly fine description of a world without sight.

Huxley, A. (1932) Brave New World New York: Doubleday; book - good illustration of a frighteningly successful dystopian future achieved through biological specialisation. (A much more condensed version of related ideas is given towards the end of Wells' The First Men on the Moon. In fact, Huxley's dystopia was intended to critique Wells' A Modern Utopia.)

Huxley, A. (1962) Island New York: Harper; book - a more optimistic version of utopia - mainly of interest in relation to early notions of ecology.

Le Guin, U. (2001) The Left Hand of Darkness London: Gollancz; impressive description of a world operating according to different sexual relations.

Le Guin, U. (2002) The Birthday of the World London: Gollancz; a very useful set of short stories, all involving speculative social formations based on altered versions of humanity.

Lewis, R. (1988) The Evolution Man London: Corgi; a rare example of humorous SF as we follow the trials and tribulations of a family trying to evolve - humour based on continual prolepsis.

Ryman, G. (1989) The Child Garden London: Gollancz; science fiction of high quality with the presentation of the life of a child/woman who becomes the central figure for a revised myth of Mother Nature.

Simak, C. (1971) City London: Sphere; the French title was Demain les Chiens, which is more expressive of this extended account of the gradual loss of urban conceptions of individuality and culture.

Stapledon, O. (1972) Last and First Men Harmondsworth: Penguin; apart from the various forms of human figuration represented here, the formal device of a future history is well developed.

Wells, H. (1960) The Island of Dr. Moreau London: Heinemann; first published in 1896, this remains an intriguing study of what is to count as human.

Wells, H. G. (1970) The Time Machine London: Heinemann; a classic.

Wyndham, J. (1971) The Chrysalids Harmondsworth: Penguin; a good example of a post atomic war dystopia with one principal character engineering change.

Wyndham, J. (1960) The Midwich Cuckoos London: Penguin

Filmography

Brook, P. (2002) Lord of the Flies Warner

Cameron, J. (1992) Terminator 2: Judgement Day Pacific Western; a much referenced example of recent reconfigurations of the body and identity - childhood is also in there, particularly in the form of predestination.

Crichton, M. (1973) Westworld

Cronenberg, D. (2001) Crash

Cronenberg, D. (1976) Videodrome; an early essay on the virtualisation of reality.

Fleischer, R. (1973) Soylent Green, dystopian film

Gilliam, T. (1985) Brazil

Greenaway, P. (1994) Prospero's Books; a re-take on the Tempest.

Jeunet, Jan-Pierre (1997) Alien Resurrection, ; a much referenced recent illustration of shifting notions of identity, subject-hood, and birth principally through the character of Ripley - rendered in this sequel as part alien.

Kubrick, S. (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey; based on a short story entitled 'The Sentinel' by Arthur C. Clarke. Striking visualisations still impressive today - particularly relevant in relation to its own contemporary setting.

Kubrick, S. (1971) A Clockwork Orange; both the book by Anthony Burgess and Kubrick's film should be consulted for their formal devices.

Lang, F. (1927) Metropolis; a much referenced source of dystopian illustration, including the creation of a robot, fascinating even if the storyline creaks.

Niccol, A. (1997) Gattaca

Proyas, A. (1999) Dark City

Schlöndorff, V. (1990) The Handmaid's Tale; disturbing figuration, but the book by Margaret Atwood should also be read for its use of multiple framing. Here, it is not so much childhood as a re-conceptualisation of motherhood that is featured.

Scott, R. (1982) Blade Runner Warner/Ladd/Blade Runner Partnership; a much referenced source for reflections on embodiment, the place of memory within identity, and the notion of 'off the shelf' childhoods.

Siegel, D. (1956) The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Spielberg, S. (2202) Minority Report

Spielberg, S. (2001) AI - Artificial Intelligence

Tarkovsky, A. (1972) Solyaris; the new version is still over-long according to many, but fascinating in its attempt to depict a planetary life form. The book of the same name by Stanislaw Lem (Solaris in translation) provides extra detail, but does not offer much more by way of figuration. The remake of Solaris is now available in DVD in the library.

Wachowski Bros. (2003) Matrix Reloaded

Wachowski Bros. (1997) The Matrix

Weir, P. (1998) The Truman Show; much referenced illustration of simulacra-dominated forms of living

Wimmer, K. (2002) Equilibrium

1	The Elements of Utopian Thinking. *Viewing of sections from Fritz Lang's Metropolis.*
2	Forster's When the Machine Stops. *Recommended extension reading: Wells' The Time Machine -* available from the resources page - suggested passages will be identified.**
3	Tarde's Fragment of a Future History *Recommended extension reading: Stapledon's First and Last Men* - a selection of extracts will be made available.**
4	Review point for first assignment - what is the social and how difficult is it to maintain? The following notes are attached as context sources that may help to formulate your ideas on the social. Notes on Social Darwinism Other context topics
5	Strategies of the genre: relating the microcosm to the macrocosm - Golding's Lord of the Flies Recommended extension viewing - Lindsay Anderson's If. The notes for this week also incorporate comparisons with 2001: a Space Odyssey - if you are not familiar with this then organise a viewing - and the same holds true for Blade Runner!
6	Dystopias 1 Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale *Recommended extension viewing: the film of the same title by V. Schlöndorff, and by way of contrast, Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men.*
7	Dystopias 2 *Burgess' / Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. A combined handout on Nadsat and NewSpeak will also be provided during the lecture.* Recommended extension reading/viewing: George Orwell's 1984 , particularly in relation to mind control - in Orwell's case applied by control of language itself rather than by the Pavlovian abjection training Alex is subjected to.
8	*The bigger picture - utopian hope and error: narrative form in Margaret Attwood's Oryx and Crake.* Recommended extension reading and viewing: Donna Haraway's 'Manifesto for Cyborgs' and Andrew Niccol's film, GATTACA. (All the contents for this week are intended to support your preparation for the second assignment.)
9	Utopia through other eyes 1 Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. *Recommended extension reading: Zamyatin's WE -* selected passages will be made available. If you have not yet viewed The Truman Show, now is your time!**
10	Utopia through other eyes 2 Steven Spielberg's AI- Artificial Intelligence. Recommended extension reading: Ballard, J. G. (1995) Crash London: Vintage - there is also a film version of this. Much more prosaically, the film, I, Robot based on Isaac Asimov's story of the same title is also of interest for comparison - and then there is The Matrix.
11	Review point for second assignment - reading of Simmel - but read it before you come to the lecture! Narratives and Social Action Simmel's 'Metropolis and Mental Life' Please bring along your initial plans for the assignment - we will spend some time identifying themes from within the essay, as well as identifying possibilities existing within the range of texts that we have covered during this module.. Recommended extension analysis: Halpin, D. (2002) Hope and Education: the Role of the Utopian Imagination London: Routledge; Midgley, M. (2004) The Myths We Live By London: Routledge; Moylan, T. (2000) Scraps of the Untainted Sky Boulder, CO.: Westview Press; Barr, M. (1987) Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory Westport, Conn.: Greenwood; Barr, M. (ed.) (2000) Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Boston: Rowman & Littlefield. (There is also the earlier version of this: Future Females: A Critical Anthology, (1981)).
12	Final Review: Education as a utopian project. We return to Zamyatin's We from week 9, but this time we are visited by the Borg! *Recommended extension viewing: TRON.*