Anarchism and Utopianism

Book ann: Manchester University Press

Anarchism and Utopianism

This collection of original essays examines the relationship between anarchism and utopianism, exploring the intersections and overlaps between these two fields of study and providing novel perspectives for the analysis of both. The book opens with an historical and philosophical survey of the subject matter and goes on to examine antecedents of the anarchist literary utopia; anti capitalism and the anarchist utopian literary imagination; free love as an expression of anarchist politics and utopian desire; and revolutionary practice. Contributors explore the creative interchange of anarchism and utopianism in both theory and modern political practice; debunk some widely-held myths about the inherent utopianism of anarchy; uncover the anarchistic influences active in the history of utopian thought; and provide fresh perspectives on contemporary academic and activist debates about ecology, alternatives to capitalism, revolutionary theory and practice, and the politics of art, gender and sexuality. Scholars in both anarchist and utopian studies have for many years acknowledged a relationship between these two areas, but this is the first time that the historical and philosophical dimensions of the relationship have been investigated as a primary focus for research, and its political significance given full and detailed consideration.

Anarchism and Utopianism
Contents
Preface - Peter Marshall
Introduction - Laurence Davis
Part I Historical and philosophical overview

  1. Anarchism and the dialectic of utopia - John P. Clark

Part II Antecedents of the anarchist literary utopia

  1. Daoism as utopian or accommodationist: radical Daoism reexamined in light of the Guodian Manuscripts - John A. Rapp
  2. Diderot's Supplément au voyage de Bougainville: steps towards an anarchist utopia - Peter G. Stillman

Part III Anti-capitalism and the anarchist utopian literary imagination

  1. Everyone an artist: art, labour, anarchy, and utopia - Laurence Davis
  2. Anarchist powers: B. Traven, Pierre Clastres, and the question of utopia - Nicholas Spencer
  3. Utopia, anarchism and the political implications of emotions - Gisela Heffes
  4. Anarchy in the archives: notes from the ruins of Sydney and Melbourne - Brian Greenspan

Part IV Free love: anarchist politics and utopian desire

  1. Speaking desire: anarchism and free love as utopian performance in fin de siècle Britain - Judy Greenway
  2. Visions of the future: reproduction, revolution and regeneration in American anarchist utopian fiction - Brigitte Koenig
  3. Intimate fellows: utopia and chaos in the early post-Stonewall gay liberation manifestos - Dominic Ording

Part V Rethinking revolutionary practice

  1. Anarchism, utopianism and the politics of emancipation - Saul Newman
  2. Anarchism and the politics of utopia - Ruth Kinna
  3. 'The space now possible': anarchist education as utopian hope - Judith Suissa
  4. Utopia in contemporary anarchism - Uri Gordon

Index

Manchester University Press
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9NR
+44 (0) 161 275 2310
[url]http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalogue/book.asp?id=120446…]
HB 978-0-7190-7934-4
234x156mm 304pp