![]() They are often genuinely fascinated to think that “the author thought that up.” I think I have mentioned before that when Hawthorne’s eponymous Young Goodman Brown leaves behind his wife, “Faith,” my sophomores do not immediately find this over-the-top pointing by the author. To a student who is just learning to really read (to interpret and not just sound out groupings of letters), the idea that “Erewhon” can be rearranged to “nowhere” is an important insight. The painfully obvious names in Erewhon might be one reason for high-brow critics to dismiss such a text. ![]() The fact that many of these writers had limited success at the literary forms they chose may actually be a point in their favor-student accessibility is sometimes easier when teaching the apparently obvious. Augustine and Campanella the psychological plan of Skinner the social plan of Bellamy the plays of Čapek the films of Fritz Lang, Ridley Scott, Stephen Speilberg and numberless others as well as whole realms of speculative fiction. I might also mention that while most genres are distinguished by their form (lyric poetry, drama, non-fiction, the novel, the short story), Utopias are distinguished by their content. ![]() Consider that a partial list of the forms in which utopia appears would include: philosophical dialogues (Plato and Thomas More) travelogues of More, Swift, Wells, and Gilman the diaries of Zamyatin, London, and Atwood the dream visions of Morris and Piercy the beast fables of Swift, Wells, and Orwell the theological tracts of St. How should we live our lives? What is the goal of society? What is the telos or end at which social life aims? How do we govern ourselves? How should we govern ourselves? Where does authority come from? Is authority related to force? to power? Why is education important? What is human nature? Where else will students confront questions so nakedly if not in our classes?ģ) Utopias are essentially works in the history of ideas and their appearance in so many forms allows us to introduce lots of ideas and genre conventions. ![]() So the study of utopias forces students to make connections across boundaries and that is a real gift in education.Ģ) A second important reason to teach utopias is that they force us to confront some of the really big questions in life in a direct way. I know that I studied theology, philosophy, history, sociology, political science, psychology, literature and ecology while I was working on my dissertation. Northrop Frye wrote of Utopias as a place where “specialized disciplines can meet and interpenetrate with a mutual respect.” I love the notion of interdisciplinary work (see the blog post on the virtues of a liberal arts education for an elaborate treatment of that topic). Here are three:ġ) One is that they break down the boundaries of academic disciplines. Utopias have several virtues that recommend their teaching. I’m going to present several ideas about the place that utopias might have in a curriculum and suggest some texts that might illustrate particular ideas about utopias and that might help us sharpen our definition skills. The irony that I spent my graduate school academic career studying utopias and that I now run a school has not escaped me I’m sure that it has not escaped my faculty or students either. And good teachers will use that question to draw students into dialogue with texts and each other on the central topics of utopian writing: human nature, justice, iconoclasm, satire, authority and governance, and work and play. (Warning–this entry is teacher-nerdy and longer than usual–by about 50%) “That’s not fair!” What teacher or parent hasn’t heard that statement from a teenager? That question–in no matter what tone it is uttered or screamed or no matter how misguided we might think it is–reflects nascent stirrings about justice.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |