GU4323: Utopia and the Pandemic | R. Goyal

Comparative Literature
Undergraduate and Graduate Seminar
Tu 10:10AM-12PM

The idea of utopia, from its earliest pre-modern examples, involves the question of proper governance, the ideal relations between a state and its peoples, and the responsibilities owed between individuals. In all of its forms, Utopias create borders and insist on degrees of isolation. In this class, we explore the pressures that plagues and other catastrophes place on the ideals of utopia, especially in terms of how social relations are imagined. We will study the relationship between utopia and dystopia; how science fiction and reality converge; and how we might harmonize individual and collective interests. The problem of isolation and utopia pierces the very heart of the novel as a genre. Literary pleasure, both within and outside of the text, involving both the work of the reader and writer, is often figured in terms of isolation. The rise of the novel as a genre tracks with the rise of peaceful, solitary time. But against this pleasure in isolation, we can see the frustrations and loneliness highlighted by the contested contemporary public health interventions of social distancing and lockdown. In thinking about utopia, we will examine the role that isolation plays in its production. 

Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links.