Utopia : from the novel to revolution / Stéphanie Roza ; translated by David Broder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roza, Stéphanie, Author.

Contributor:

Broder, David, Translator.

Standardized Title:

Comment l'utopie est devenue un programme politique: du roman à la Révolution. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Utopias--France--History--18th century.

Utopias.

Utopian socialism--France--History--18th century.

Utopian socialism.

Political science--France--Philosophy--History--18th century.

Political science.

Utopias in literature.

utopian literature.

Utopias--History.

France.

Physical Description:

viii, 370 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

English-language edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York, New York : Verso, 2025

Language Note:

Translated from French.

Summary:

"Until the Age of Enlightenment, utopia was a popular literary genre, but without concrete political effects. However, in the decades leading up to 1789, its status gradually changed from an entertaining thought experiment to a socialist project. Imagining the ideal city took on the task of articulating revolutionary transformation of society towards equality and social justice. In Utopia, Stéphanie Roza explores the nascent ideal of a community of property and labour, not yet called communism, and the thinkers who engaged with it in the lead-up to the French Revolution. These philosophers included Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, a fierce critic of private property and the mysterious author of the Code de la Nature; the Abbé de Mably, a radical republican and interlocutor of Rousseau; and Gracchus Babeuf, who, from the 1780s onwards, defended the natural right to subsistence and dreamed of a more fraternal world. Together, they laid the foundations for modern socialist movements. In the crucible of the French Revolution, 'real equality' became the goal of a handful of conspirators gathered around Babeuf, who had meanwhile become the 'tribune of the people'. The Conspiracy of Equals was considered by Marx to be 'the first active communist party': the hopes and questions that ran through the group prefigured those of the militants of later periods, including today"-- Amazon website.

Contents:

Introduction: Enlightenment, Utopia, Socialism?

I: Morelly: The Many Farewells To The Novel

The Critical Utopia of La Basiliade: Introduction to an Atypical Utopia

The Code de la Nature and Its Constructive Utopia

II: The Abbé De Mably’s Utopian Republic

Des droits et des devoirs du citoyen: Utopia in Service of the Revolution

The Doutes proposés aux philosophes économistes: Utopia in Service of Polemics

De la législation: Or, Utopia in Service of Reform

III: Gracchus Babeuf, A Utopian In Revolution

Babeuf’s 1786 Draft Letter: Utopia in the Villages

Babeuf in 1789: The Cadastre perpétuel and the ‘Preliminary Discourse’; Utopia in the Assembly

Babeuf During the Revolution: Utopia and the Republic

The Conspiracy of Equals: Utopia as a Programme

Conclusion: An Anti-School of Thought

Epilogue: A Post-Revolutionary Avatar of Morellysm

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781839767654

1839767650

OCLC:

1441718012

Publisher Number:

90102627364

CIPO000239437