Dialogue Education Update 3 UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA THIS

Dialogue Education Update 3 UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA THIS CD HAS BEEN PRODUCED FOR TEACHERS TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM. IT IS A CONDITION OF THE USE OF THIS CD THAT IT BE USED ONLY BY THE PEOPLE FROM SCHOOLS THAT HAVE PURCHASED THE CD ROM FROM DIALOGUE EDUCATION. (THIS DOES NOT PROHIBIT 1 ITS USE ON A SCHOOL’S INTRANET)

Contents Page 3 - Hoopshoot game on Utopia Page 4 - Video of Alanis Morrisett’s song “Utopia” Page 5 - Where does the term Utopia originate? Page 7 - Overview of the main concepts? Page 10 - Political and historical utopias Pages 11 to 12 - Religious Utopias Page 18 - The Garden of Eden Pages 20 to 24 - Plato’s Republic Page 25 - Video Presentation on Plato’s Republic 2 Pages 26 to 28 - St Augustine’s City of God Pages 29 to 30 - Dystopian worldview. Page 31 - A video presentation - An overview of Dytopian worldviews in film. Pages 34 to 37 - Political Utopia Pages 37 to 41 - The structure of Utopian Literature Page 42 - Community of inquiry- Do computers offer a utopian world? Pages 43 to 44 - Bibliography 2

Click on the image above for a game of “Hoop Shoot”. Try playing the game with your students at the start and the end of the unit. Make sure you have started the slide show and are connected to the internet. 3

YOUTUBE Video Alanis Morrisett singing “Utopia” Click on the image to the left. You will need to be connected to the internet to view this presentation. Enlarge to full screen 4

Utopia is a name for an ideal community, taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More. 5

Utopia The word ‘utopia’ comes from Greek: οὐ, "not", and τόπος, "place", indicating that it is an ideal place and not realistically possible. 6

Utopia Dystopia is a negative utopia: a totalitarian and repressive world. Eutopia is a positive utopia, different in that it means "perfect" but not "fictional". Heterotopia, the "other place", with its real and imagined possibilities. 7

Utopia Some questions have arisen about the fact that writers and people in history have used utopia to define a perfect place. 8

Utopia Moore's utopia is largely based on Plato's Republic and some have suggested that it is a satirical view of the Britain of his day. 9

Political and historical utopia Political utopias are ones in which the government establishes a society that is striving toward perfection. 10

Religious Utopia These utopias are based on religious ideals, and are to date those most commonly found in human society. Their members are usually required to follow and believe in the particular religious tradition that established the utopia. Some permit non-believers or nonadherents to take up residence within them; others (such as the Community at Qumran) do not. 11

The Islamic, Jewish, and Christian ideas of the Garden of Eden and Heaven may be interpreted as forms of utopianism, especially in their folk-religious forms. 12

Utopia is normally created by human effort in most religious utopias, as members attempt to establish/re-establish on Earth a society which reflects the virtues and values they believe have been lost or which await them in the Afterlife. 13

In the United States and Europe during the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century and thereafter, many radical religious groups formed eutopian societies in which all aspects of people's lives could be governed by their faith. 14

Utopianism In many cultures, societies, religions, and cosmogonies, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state, but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfilment. 15

New Harmony, a utopian attempt; depicted as proposed by Robert Owen These mythical or religious archetypes are inscribed in all the cultures and resurge with special vitality when people are in difficult and critical times. 16

Golden Age The Golden Age by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Golden Age The Greek poet Hesiod, around the 8 th century BC, in his compilation of the mythological tradition (the poem Works and Days), explained that, prior to the present era, there were other four progressively more perfect ones, the oldest of which was the Golden age. 17

The Biblical Garden of Eden The Golden Age by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Biblical Garden of Eden as depicted in Genesis 2. 18

The Land of Cokaygne has been aptly called the "poor man's heaven. 19

Plato’s republic The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 380 BC. 20

Plato’s Republic The scene of the dialogue is the house of Polemarchus at Piraeus, a city-port connected to Athens by the Long Walls. 21

Plato’s Dialectical Forms of Government Plato spends much of "The Republic" narrating conversations about the Ideal State. 22

Timocracy Socrates defines a timocracy as a government ruled by people who love honour and are selected according to the degree of honour they hold in society. 23

Plato’s Dialectical Forms of Government 2. Oligarchy These temptations create a confusion between economic status and honour which is responsible for the emergence of oligarchy. In Book VIII, 24

Democracy As this socioeconomic divide grows, so do tensions between social classes. 25

Plato’s Dialectical Forms of Government Tyranny The excessive freedoms granted to the citizens of a democracy ultimately leads to a tyranny. 4. 26

YOUTUBE Video Plato’s Republic Click on the image to the right. You will need to be connected to the internet to view this presentation. Enlarge to full screen 27

Augustine’s City of God "The City of God is a book written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5 th century, dealing with issues concerning God, martyrdom, Jews, and other Christian philosophies. 28

Augustine’s City of God Augustine wrote the treatise to explain Christianity's relationship with competing religions and philosophies, and to the Roman government with which it was increasingly intertwined. 29

Augustine’s City of God Despite Christianity's designation as the official religion of the empire, Augustine declared its message to be spiritual rather than political. 30

Dystopia The first known use of the term dystopia appeared in a speech before the British Parliament by Greg Webber and John Stuart Mill in 1868. 31

Dystopia The only trait common to all dystopias is that they are negative and undesirable societies, but many commonalities are found across dystopian societies. 32

You Tube Video giving an overview of Dystopian worlds in film Click on the image to the right. You will need to be connected to the internet to view this presentation. Enlarge to full screen 33

Most dystopias impose severe social restrictions on the characters' lives. 34

Some dystopian works emphasize the pressure to conform in terms of the requirement to not excel. 35

Political Dytopia Dystopian politics are often characterized as one of several types of governments and political systems. 36

Dystopias are often filled with pessimistic views of the ruling class or government that is brutal or uncaring ruling with an “iron hand” or “iron fist. ” 37

In some dystopian societies, such as that of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange there is little government control and the people themselves cause chaos. 38

Characteristics of dystopian fiction As the overwhelming majority of dystopias are set in projected futures, dystopia is generally considered a subgenre of science fiction. 39

The back story Because dystopian literature typically depicts events that take place in the future, it often features technology more advanced than that of contemporary society. 40

The Hero Unlike utopian fiction, which often features an outsider to have the world shown to him, dystopias seldom feature an outsider as the protagonist. 41

The Conflict There is usually a group of people somewhere in the society who are not under the complete control of the state. 42

Climax and dénouement The hero's goal is either escape or destruction of the social order. 43

Community of Inquiry CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR THE STIMULUS MATERIAL FOR A DISCUSSION ON THE A UTOPIAN WORLD WHERE THE INTERNET SOLVES ALL OUR PROBLEMS. (You might like to print this material out and distribute it to the class. ) 44

References - Utopia Kumar, Krishan (1991) Utopianism (Milton Keynes: Open University Press) ISBN 0 -335 -15361 -5 Manuel, Frank & Manuel, Fritzie (1979) Utopian Thought in the Western World (Oxford: Blackwell) ISBN 0 -674 -93185 -8 Hine, Robert V. (1983) California's Utopian Colonies (University of California Press) ISBN 0 -520 -04885 -7 Kumar, K (1987) Utopia and Anti-utopia in Modern Times (Oxford: Blackwell) ISBN 0 -631 -16714 -5 Shadurski, Maxim I. (2007) Literary Utopias from More to Huxley: The Issues of Genre Poetics and Semiosphere. Finding an Island (Moscow: URSS) ISBN 978 -5 -382 -00362 -7 Wikipedia-Utopia- http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Utopia 45

References- Dystopia Cacotopia (κακό, caco = bad) was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 19 th century works Exploring Dystopia, last accessed on 19 March 2006, see also Oxford English Dictionary Wikipedia-Dystopia- http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Dystopia City Life - Future Cities: Utopia or Dystopia. (2007). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 30, 2007, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http: //www. britannica. com/oscar/article-234546 dystopia. (n. d. ). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from Dictionary. com website: http: //dictionary. reference. com/browse/dystopia Encyclopedia of Utopian Literature. Mary Ellen Snodgrass. p. xii science fiction. (2007). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http: //www. britannica. com/eb/article-235726 ^ William Matter, "On Brave New World" p 95, Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander, No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction, ISBN 0 -8093 -1113 -5 ^ Jack Zipes, "Mass Degradation of Humanity" p 189, Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander, No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction, ISBN 0 -8093 -1113 -5 46