“To be utopian in our time is to refuse to give up, to refuse to be instrumentally ‘realistic’ and thereby no longer acting as well-behaved and respectable subjects within the current terms and conditions of the present society. To be utopian is to become a radical change agent. Working collectively in comradely solidarity, those who consciously desire that better world have to tease out the tendencies and latencies that will enable humanity to build it her and now in the shell of the old.” -Tom Moylan, Becoming Utopian:The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation
from Bloomsbury Academic
—Now Available in Paperback—
Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation
Becoming Utopian explores the dynamic relationship between the transformative utopian impulse and political action. Framed by a comprehensive introduction and concluding interview with Tom Moylan, a Foreword by Ruth Levitas (Emerita Professor, Bristol University) and an Afterword by Phillip E. Wegner (Professor, English, University of Florida), this assemblage of essays elucidates the utopian process by way of specific studies of sociopolitical theory and practice (including utopian theory, ecological activism, nonviolence, radical pedagogy, community organizing), doing so with the help of critical theory, secular/post-secular hermeneutics, and the science fictional diagnostic imaginary. While each essay grows from the time it was written, each adds a facet to this contemporary prismatic exploration of utopian transgression and transformation.
As both theoretical meditation and intellectual memoir, Becoming Utopian offers a nuanced appreciation of the existential and political process involved in the formation of a person as a self-aware, utopian change agent.
What People Are Saying
“Becoming Utopian is a synthesis of engagements and concerns and a completion of hermeneutic and political wagers, a vital addition to socially conscious and totally engaged scholarship, and a contribution that may prove as lasting as Moylan’s two major works that preceded it. It is mature, engaged, and urgent at once, just as it is both profoundly self-reflexive and passionately attuned to the difference inherent in utopian rupture. It is an always already classical work, for it is a work of authentic humanist sensibility that is poised to inspire and nuture scholarship for years to come.”
— Dr. Antonis Balasopoulos, University of Cyprus
“In Becoming Utopian, preeminent utopia studies scholar Tom Moylan explores a broad terrain of utopian expression. Refusing the division between the personal and the political, Moylan masterfully illuminates connections among utopian texts, political practices, and processes of subjectivization. This is politicized utopianism and militant optimism of the highest order.”
— Kathi Weeks, Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Duke University, USA
The Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies was established at the University of Limerick in 2003 to pursue innovative research across disciplines on utopian thought and practice. The Centre’s research and service agenda is based on the premise that social values, policies, and practices are shaped by hopeful, utopian visions, and that this dimension is critical to the betterment of life for all members of society. Far from a static ‘perfect’ and allegedly unrealisable proposition, Ralahine promotes an understanding of the utopian as both a social reality and a critically important way of envisoning change. The ‘political unconcious’ (F. Jameson) of a society is utopian insofar as it expresses collective desires for better values and practices. Ralahine is committed to the exploration of this practical insight, both historically and with respect to our common future.