USSO 286U - Ideal Communities, Utopian Visions, and Totalitarian Nightmares

Institution:

Case Western Reserve University

Subject:

Description:

This course will study communal attempts to form ideal societies and will offer a transcultural, transhistorical view of how various authors and filmmakers have imagined the best and worst possibilities of human society. Its central questions are: How can society be improved? What role does education play in improving society? How do you define freedom? How can we combine freedom with social order? How can social problems be critiqued through representations of ideal or dysfunctional societies? The course will be interdisciplinary by combining historical study with analysis of literature, film, art, and music. In studying and discussing utopian communities, students will examine the problems that each community attempted to solve, their philosophical approach to solving these problems, the success or failure of their solutions, and the similarities and differences among these communities. In studying utopian and dystopian literature and film, we will analyze the problems and solutions that each text or film examines and proposes, and will look at each text or film in its social and historical context. We will also explore how authors and filmmakers have used their utopian and dystopian visions to respond to the positive or negative trends in their own societies. In addition, we will discuss how each text or film coincides with or challenges our perceptions of the strengths and problems in our society and how we might solve those problems. This course will encourage students to think about the kind of world they would like to help bring about, as well as the various social problems that may darken the future of the human race. Students will write in class regularly about theses issues as well as the assigned readings that raise these issues, and will write essays about ideal communities, utopian texts, and dystopian texts. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSO, FSCC, FSNA, FSSY or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.case.edu

Phone Number:

(216) 368-2000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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