Imagining Utopia: Politics, Planning
- All levels
- 21 and older
- $315
- 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY
- 12 hours over 4 sessions
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Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY
Delve into the profound intersections of race, class, and capitalism in a thought-provoking exploration of contemporary radical movements. Join us for an in-depth examination of Cedric Robinson’s concept of racial capitalism and its implications for understanding modernity, nationalism, and Black Radicalism. Uncover the complexities of these interwoven systems through close readings and discussions led by expert scholars at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
May 8th
6:30–9:30pm EDT
Meets 4 Times
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY
Does every “great” city possess a waterfront? Historical hubs of trade, waterfronts inculcate cultures that structure and permeate modern urban space—cultures of capital, labor, leisure, sex, and, in a de-industrial age, decay. Inextricable from the history of cities, waterfronts are, by extension, inextricable from the history of transnational capitalism. What can we learn, on the waterfront, about how waterways, transportation, and the city...
May 9th
6:30–9:30pm EDT
Meets 4 Times
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY
Explore the profound insights of Erich Auerbach's "Mimesis" in a journey through Western literary tradition. Join us at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research as we delve into Auerbach's groundbreaking analysis, unraveling the complexities of literary representation from Homer to modernity. Engage with timeless questions of realism, humanism, and the essence of literature in this captivating exploration of Auerbach's enduring legacy.
May 14th
6:30–9:30pm EDT
Meets 4 Times
Imagining Utopia: Politics, Planning, and the (Im)Possible
Dystopias abound in the contemporary landscape—in literature, on screen, in our diagnoses of the present. From the zombie apocalypse to planetary catastrophe to nightmarish visions of gender disciplining, dystopia is today a particularly salient category, a popular outlet for imaginations of (im)possible political futures. But the utopian genre, older by over a century, appears to have been all but eclipsed by its unsettling counterpart, even relegated to a pejorative: the utopian as politically naïve, escapist, nostalgic, irrational, dogmatic, and, ultimately, unrealizable. While the latter designation perhaps misapprehends the actual value and aspirations of the genre, what are we to make of this apparent retreat from utopian thinking—in both our cultural and political imaginaries? For whom, and in what form, does utopia remain—or stand a chance of becoming—a fruitful category for contemporary politics?
In this course, we will engage the project of utopia in its various forms and functions—as regulative principle, diagnostic tool, speculative exploration, and concrete political intervention. Beginning with Marx’s admittedly ambivalent relationship with the utopian socialists of his era, we will work our way through writings by Thomas More, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, before expanding our conversation to include twentieth and twenty-first century thinkers for whom the utopian impulse was vital for a Marxist politics—including Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Fredric Jameson, and Mark Fisher. How did these writers and thinkers situate their visions of utopia in relation to emancipatory movements past and present? Along the way, we’ll explore literary and other cultural expressions of utopia, with a focus on utopian literature’s close affinity with feminist and queer theory in works by, among others, Shulamith Firestone, Ursula Le Guin, and Jennie Livingston. How does the figure of utopia allow us to envision a world that might be otherwise—at a time when crisis and catastrophe dominate our imaginations of the future?
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The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research was established in 2011 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Its mission is to extend liberal arts education and research far beyond the borders of the traditional university, supporting community education needs and opening up new possibilities for scholarship in the...
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Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Brooklyn
68 Jay St
Btwn Water & Front Streets
Brooklyn, New York 11201 Brooklyn
68 Jay St
Btwn Water & Front Streets
Brooklyn, New York 11201
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