Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction
Jörn Rüsen, Michael Fehr and Thomas W. Rieger

Chapter 1. The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-National Perspective
Lyman Tower Sargent

PART I: POLITICS, CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS OF UTOPIAN THINKING

Chapter 2. Aspects of the Western Utopian Tradition
Krishan Kumar

Chapter 3. Visions of the Future
Michael Thompson

Chapter 4. Utopia, Contractualism, Human Rights
Richard Saage

Chapter 5. On the Construction of Worlds: Technology and Economy in European Utopias
Wolfgang Pircher

PART II: ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND THE 'NEW MAN'

Chapter 6. Bodies in Utopia and Utopian Bodies in Imperial China
Dorothy Ko

Chapter 7. Science, Technology and Utopia: Perspectives of a Computer-Assisted Evolution of Humankind
Klaus Mainzer

Chapter 8. ‘Thinking about the Unthinkable’: The Virtual as a Place of Utopia
Claus Pias

Chapter 9. Natural Utopianism in Everyday Life Practice – An Elementary Theoretical Model
Ulrich Oevermann

PART III: MUSEUM AS UTOPIAN LABORATORY

Chapter 10. Haunted by Things: Utopias and Their Consequences
Donald Preziosi

Chapter 11. Art – Museum – Utopia: Five Themes on an Epistemological Construction Site
Michael Fehr

Chapter 12. Art, Science, Utopia in the Early Modern Period
Wolfgang Braungart

Chapter 13. Utopiary
Rachel Weiss

PART IV: UTOPIA AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Chapter 14. The Utopian Vision, East and West
Zhang Longxi

Chapter 15. Trauma: A Dystopia of the Spirit
Michael S. Roth

Chapter 16. From Revolutionary to Catastrophic Utopia
Slavoj Zizek

Chapter 17. The Narrative Staging of Image and Counter-Image: On the Poetics of Literary Utopias
Wilhelm Vosskamp

Chapter 18. Rethinking Utopia: A Plea for a Culture of Inspiration
Jörn Rüsen

Notes on Contributors
Index

About the Author

Jörn Rüsen was Professor of Modern History at Universities Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld. Since 1997 he has been President of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut). He specialises in theory and methodology of historical sciences, the history of historiography, intercultural aspects of historical thinking, theory of historical learning, and the history of human rights.

Reviews

“…a highly readable and structured discussion about utopian thinking at the beginning of the 21st century…It is indeed fortunate that political scientists, historians, philosophers, art critics, and literary theorists have come together to share their thinking on utopia and utopian thought at this disastrous moment of human history, when many are asking if there is a future to which to look forward.”   ·  European Legacy