Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Pandemics and the Lesson of History
- Chapter 2 American Futures
- Chapter 3 Engendering Utopia
- Chapter 4 America and/as White Supremacy
- Chapter 5 American Spirituality
- Chapter 6 Black Escapes and Black Wishlands
- Chapter 7 Latinx Belonging in New World Borders
- Chapter 8 Educating Desire
- Chapter 9 Utopia after American Hegemony
- Chapter 10 Technological Fantasies
- Chapter 11 Utopian Spaces
- Chapter 12 Environmentalism and Ecotopias
- Chapter 13 Economic Justice
- Chapter 14 Renewing Democracy
- Chapter 15 The Time of New Histories
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Chapter 12 - Environmentalism and Ecotopias
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Pandemics and the Lesson of History
- Chapter 2 American Futures
- Chapter 3 Engendering Utopia
- Chapter 4 America and/as White Supremacy
- Chapter 5 American Spirituality
- Chapter 6 Black Escapes and Black Wishlands
- Chapter 7 Latinx Belonging in New World Borders
- Chapter 8 Educating Desire
- Chapter 9 Utopia after American Hegemony
- Chapter 10 Technological Fantasies
- Chapter 11 Utopian Spaces
- Chapter 12 Environmentalism and Ecotopias
- Chapter 13 Economic Justice
- Chapter 14 Renewing Democracy
- Chapter 15 The Time of New Histories
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Summary
This chapter considers contemporary environmentalism through the lens of ecotopia, a modification of the utopian form that includes the ecological as a core consideration. The idea that the nonhuman world should have meaningful political status is a radical transformation of the usual terms of utopia, rendering certain utopian tropes (like the technology-fueled extinction of vermin or pests) impossible while activating other new possibilities both for the transformation of the social and for individual self-actualization. In particular, ecotopias are distinct from most utopias in their abiding suspicion of technology; in an era of escalating climate disaster, this suspicion of technology becomes increasingly urgent even as it becomes complicated by the perceived need for some miraculous techno-fix to ameliorate the worst impacts of climate change even in ecotopia. A short coda discusses real-world ecotopian projects, attempts to make such visions real as a model to others for what might yet be.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024