The Cambridge companion to American utopian literature and culture since 1945 / edited by Sherryl Vint.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Vint, Sherryl, 1969- editor.

Series:

Cambridge companions to literature.

Cambridge companions to topics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Utopias--United States.

Utopias.

Utopias in literature.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

United States--Civilization--1945-.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 312 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Providing a comprehensive overview of American thought in the period following World War II, after which the US became a global military and economic leader, this book explores the origins of American utopianism and provides a trenchant critique from the point of view of those left out of the hegemonic ideal. Centring the voices of those oppressed by or omitted from the consumerist American Dream, this book celebrates alternative ways of thinking about how to create a better world through daily practices of generosity, justice, and care. The chapters collected here emphasize utopianism as a practice of social transformation, not as a literary genre depicting a putatively perfect society, and urgently make the case for why we need utopian thought today. With chapters on climate change, economic justice, technology, and more, alongside chapters exploring utopian traditions outside Western frameworks, this book opens a new discussion in utopian thought and theory.

Contents:

Introduction : utopianism in dark times / Sherryl Vint

Pandemics and the lesson of history / Priscilla Wald

American futures / Phillip E. Wegner

Engendering utopia : the force of gender and the limits of feminism / Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor

America and/as White supremacy / Edward K. Chan and Patricia Ventura

American spirituality / Andrew Tate

Black escapes and Black wishlands / Jerry Rafiki Jenkins

Latinx belonging in new world borders : Mestiz@ rhetoric and critical utopian/dystopian dialectics of ambivalence / Rubén R. Mendoza

Educating desire : young adult utopian fiction / Jonathan Alexander

Utopia after American hegemony / Peter Boxall

Technological fantasies / Matthew Wolf-Meyer

Utopian spaces / Roger Luckhurst

Environmentalism and ecotopias / Gerry Canavan

Economic justice / Hugh C. O'Connell

Renewing democracy / Mathias Nilges

The time of new histories : utopian possibility in America's twenty-first century / John Rieder.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 May 2024).

Includes bibliographical records and index.

ISBN:

9781009188210

1009188216

9781009188227

1009188224

9781009180078

100918007X