Visualizing Utopia
edited by M. Kemperink and W.H.S. Roenhorst
This volume contains the essays presented at the workshop ‘Visualizing Utopia’ held in May 2005, organized by Mary Kemperink and Willemien Roenhorst. The essays presented here discuss utopian thinking from 1890 until 1930. From the end of the eighteenth century, this utopian thinking developed from what can be called ‘classic’ utopianism into ‘modern’ utopianism. Utopianism unmarked by temporality made way for a tale situated in time – future time. Thus what was first regarded as merely a thought experiment gradually assumed the character of a real political programme. In their view of the new world and new people, writers, artists, architects, social reformers, cultural critics, politicians, etc., would often draw on representations already present in the culture. These could be biblical representations, such as those of the Apocalypse, Christ the Saviour and earthly paradise, or ancient myths, such as those of the Age of Gold, Arcadia, the sun-drenched world of Gnosticism and the Wagnerian mythological universe. The workshop concentrated on the following two aspects: the way in which the future Utopia and the path that would lead to its realization was given shape in the artistic field as well as in the non-artistic field, and the question to which culturally rooted concepts these representations were related. This double line of approach created the opportunity for specialized researchers from different disciplines – history, cultural history, art history, history of architecture, literary history – to discuss utopianism as it manifested itself in Europe and the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.
This volume contains the essays presented at the workshop ‘Visualizing Utopia’ held in May 2005, organized by Mary Kemperink and Willemien Roenhorst. The essays presented here discuss utopian thinking from 1890 until 1930. From the end of the eighteenth century, this utopian thinking developed from what can be called ‘classic’ utopianism into ‘modern’ utopianism. Utopianism unmarked by temporality made way for a tale situated in time – future time. Thus what was first regarded as merely a thought experiment gradually assumed the character of a real political programme. In their view of the new world and new people, writers, artists, architects, social reformers, cultural critics, politicians, etc., would often draw on representations already present in the culture. These could be biblical representations, such as those of the Apocalypse, Christ the Saviour and earthly paradise, or ancient myths, such as those of the Age of Gold, Arcadia, the sun-drenched world of Gnosticism and the Wagnerian mythological universe. The workshop concentrated on the following two aspects: the way in which the future Utopia and the path that would lead to its realization was given shape in the artistic field as well as in the non-artistic field, and the question to which culturally rooted concepts these representations were related. This double line of approach created the opportunity for specialized researchers from different disciplines – history, cultural history, art history, history of architecture, literary history – to discuss utopianism as it manifested itself in Europe and the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.
- Edited by M Kemperink
- Edited by WHS Roenhorst
Other Titles in this Series
Europa: Charming Zeus … and Numerous Others!
International Political Economy of EU Accession
Volume 29
Form and Style in Journalism
European Newspapers and the Representation of News, 1880-2005
Volume 26
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period I
Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Revolt
Volume 39
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period II
Consolidation of God-given Power
Volume 40
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period III
Legitimation of Authority
Volume 41
Believers in the Nation
European Religious Minorities in the Age of Nationalism (1815-1914)
Volume 52
Cultural Mediators
Artists and Writers at the Crossroads of Tradition, Innovation and Reception in the Low Countries and Italy 1450-1650
Volume 31
Lady Macbeth’s Sisters
Women's Power in Political Elites in the Transition from Monarchy to Democracy
Volume 43
The Beloved Mothertongue
Ethnolinguistic Nationalism in Small Nations: Inventories and Reflections
Volume 33
Nobilities in Europe in the Twentieth Century
Reconversion Strategies, Memory Culture, and Elite Formation
Volume 50
Understanding Art in Antwerp
Classicising the Popular, Popularising the Classic (1540-1580)
Volume 45
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