M-F, 10:20 AM-11:35 AM, SY 037
Fulfills COLL S&H Requirement

Instructor: Kathleen McConnell
E-Mail: kfmcconn@indiana.edu
Office: Ballantine Hall 526

For centuries, people have tried to imagine Utopia: a perfect world
without social ills where everyone's needs and desires are satisfied
and people live in harmony with each other and the surrounding
environment. This course tours both imagined and living utopias
including Plato's Republic, Disney's real life town of Celebration,
Ursula Le Guin's sci-fi lunarscape Anarres, and the virtual world
Second Life. We'll explore what people perceive as the perfect form
of education, technology, sexual practices, social relations,
economics, governance, and the built environment. The goal of this
exploration is to appreciate the rhetorical – or persuasive –
dimensions of these invented worlds, particularly the way utopias
serve as a critique of our existing world. Since one person's dream
world can be another's nightmare (think of The Stepford Wives),
utopias often make us aware of our fears. For instance, can the
perfect world only be achieved by eliminating some people? Enforcing
extreme social controls? Or abolishing social controls altogether?
As escapist, timeless nowheres, utopias are an unusual form of
persuasion – one that enables us to imagine the limits and potential
of any particular social policy. By trying to invent the perfect
world, utopias serve an essential function in our efforts to build a
better world.

This course introduces students to utopian studies and builds skills
in rhetorical criticism. In particular, it covers the history and
characteristics of the utopian genre, and introduces students to key
concepts and readings in rhetorical criticism. It includes a Mid-
term, a Final Exam, several short writing assignments, and a final
paper in which students invent a utopia. The course will be a
combination of lecture and discussion and all films will be screened
in class.