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Utopia's Legacy (A Postscript)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Eduardo Portella*
Affiliation:
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

To the extent that our future depends on our ability to change and ‘live together’, we cannot do without utopian thought. We know utopia goes astray when it puts off indefinitely confronting the present, trying to prolong the temptation to go back to complete, stable models. It goes astray when its totality merges into totalitarianism. But if utopia was shattered, broken into pieces, divided into lots, would it still be utopia? Turned into a listed heritage, a legacy that is both fertile and too weighty, utopia demands an approach at the same time critical and self-critical.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2006

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References

Note

1. Carlos Fuentes (1992) The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.