EUH 3931 (Honors)
Perfect Worlds—Utopias in the Western Imagination

Howard Louthan
218 Flint Hall
Louthan@ufl.edu
273-3381
Office Hours
    Wednesday - 11:00-12:30
    Thursday - 4:00-5:30

Course Location and Times
Flint Hall 117
Tuesday 7th period (1:55-2:45)
Thursday 7th-8th periods (1:55-3:50)


From the beginning of recorded history, human beings have sought to create perfect societies. The ancient Greeks were among the first to express these ideas in concrete form with Plato’s Republic, but the ancient world saw many other schemes and ideas to improve human communities. Sacred writings such as the Bible also included visions of societies free from imperfection and human failings. This course will offer a broad survey of these dreams of perfect worlds from antiquity to the present day. We will begin with the Greeks and Plato but also include a consideration of the skeptical critics of such plans before turning to Christian sources from this early period. Chronologically, our focus will then jump to the Renaissance period, which was the true golden age of utopian literature.   

In this interdisciplinary course, we will be reading a variety of genres including the essay, the allegory, the drama, the satire and even the law. In the final section of the course we will move to the modern period and look at attempts to create perfect societies in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will conclude by examining the dark side of the “perfect society” and see how dystopic nightmares can parallel the benign schemes of utopian thinkers.

This is a demanding course and should only be taken by students ready to invest themselves wholeheartedly. The reading load is significant. We will be working through texts that require close and careful attention. Discussions will be done in small groups, and you will be expected to contribute in every session (i.e. you cannot hide in the back of the classroom). You will also be writing some type of paper or essay almost every week. If you are looking for a light and easy class, this is most definitely not it!!!  On the other hand, if you are willing to make the investment in reading, writing and discussion, this class may be one of the most rewarding courses you will take at the University of Florida. We will be reading some of the greatest texts of Western literature in a multi-disciplinary context. The ideas that we will be discussing are as pressing and relevant as they were when originally written.  


Grade Calculation
Test One: 20%
Test Two: 20%
Class Participation: 25%
Essay One (Analytic Exercise): 10%
    Essay Schedule
Essay Two: 15%   (Creative alternative)
Group Project—Modern Dystopias: 10%

Class Participation
Discussion Leading Responsibilities
Regular short writing assignments
Occasional quizzes
Active participation in class and discussion
*Students who do not bring the reading assignment to class during discussion days will be asked to leave.

Writing Requirement
Students will be required to write two longer essays during the course of the semester.   The first paper (3-4 pages) will be an analytic essay based upon the reading of the week.  In this essay students will examine a particular aspect of the text perhaps responding to a discussion question.  More information about the analytic essays will be given during the first weeks of class.  Early in the semester students will sign up for a specific week and topic.

A second longer paper (4-5 pages) will be a more creative assignment. You will be asked to reflect back on the major themes and writings of the course.  You will be asked to address some of the practical issues connected both to utopias and dystopias and their implications for our own world.  The emphasis here will be placed on the relevance of these ideas to our own society today.

Late papers will be dropped a full letter grade each day.  Short writing assignments (class participation) will not be accepted if late.
 
Those who are interested could substitute a more traditional research paper (10 pages) for the two shorter assignments. Please speak with the professor concerning this possibility.


Grading Scale
A = 100-92.5
A- = 92.4-90
B+ = 89.9-87.5
B = 87.4-82.5
B- = 82.4-80
C+ = 79.9-77.5
C = 77.4-72.5
C- = 72.4-70
D+ = 69.9-67.5
D = 67.4-62.5
D- = 62.4-60
F = Below 60


Attendance Policy
As this course is a discussion-based course, I will be following a very strict attendance policy for discussion sessions (usually Thursday).  Students will be allowed one free absence over the semester.   For those who have more unexcused absences, the following penalties will be applied.
Two absences: Deduction of 3 points of the final grade
Three absences: Deduction of 6 points of the final grade
Four absences: Deduction of 10 points of the final grade
Five absences: Automatic failure

Key Lecture Terms

Discussion Groups


Course Schedule

Week One
    Aug. 23: Introduction
    Aug. 25: Plato’s Republic—introductory video and discussion
Reading Assignment: 1-43 (327-368b)—What is Justice?
Written Assignment--What is Justice? (Textual Analysis)

Week Two
    Aug. 30: Plato
    Sept. 1: Plato discussion
Reading Assignment: 43-110 (368b-434c); 125-136 (451c-457c); 191-212 (521c-541b)
Written Assignment--Best or Worst of All Possible Worlds
New York Times Op-Ed on Utopia

Week Three
    Sept. 6: Greece in the Golden Age
    Sept. 8: Pericles/Aristophanes discussion
Reading Assignment: Pericles' Funeral Oration (Tuesday); The Birds (Thursday)
Writing Assignment: Life in a Society less than Ideal


Week Four
    Sept. 13: Biblical literature: Sermon on the Mount/Revelation
    Sept. 15: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Selections from the New Testament: Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7:27); Epistle to the Ephesians (entire); Revelation 1:1-20; 4:1-8:2; 12:1-22:21
Writing Assignment: Biblical imagination and Utopia

Week Five
    Sept. 20: Renaissance Utopias
    Sept. 22: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Thomas More, Utopia
Writing Assignment: A Letter to a Censor

Week Six
    Sept. 27: Religion and Utopia in the Renaissance World
    Sept. 29: Discussion
Reading Assignment: John Comenius, The Labyrinth of the World
Writing Assignment: The Labyrinth and Contemporary Society

Week Seven
    Oct. 4: Utopia in a New World
    Oct. 6: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Shakespeare, The Tempest

Week Eight
    Oct. 11: Bartram—Paynes Prairie  (Test One)
    Oct. 13: Rare book assignment
Reading Assignment: William Bartram and the Limits of Enlightenment
Writing Assignment: Bartram--a naturalist utopian?

Week Nine
    Oct. 18: Enlightenment and Utopian Thought
    Oct. 20: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Voltaire, Candide
Writing Assignment: Candide and Utopia

Week Ten
    Oct. 25: Peasant Utopias
    Oct. 27: Catch up
Reading Assignment: Gerrard Winstanely,  Law of Freedom in a Platform
Writing Assignment: Proposal and five sources for final paper (due 1 November)

Week Eleven
    Nov. 1: Understanding Marx
    Nov. 3: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto; begin Looking Backward
Writing Assignment: Originality of the Communist Manifesto

Week Twelve
    Nov. 8: Edward Bellamy and the American Utopia
    Nov. 10: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
Writing Assignment: An American Critique of 19th Century Capitalism

Week Thirteen
    Nov. 15 Karel Čapek and the Rise of Dystopia
    Nov. 17: Discussion
Reading Assignment: Karel Čapek, R.U.R.; "Let's be revolutionary"
Writing Assignment: Karel Čapek--Dystopia and Utopia

Week Fourteen
    Nov. 22  Film: Fritz Lang, Metropolis
    Nov. 24  Thanksgiving

Week Fifteen
    Nov. 29:  Dystopia projects
    Dec. 1:  Dystopia projects

Week Sixteen
    Dec. 6:  Test Two


Frequently encountered writing problems


Required Books
Plato, The Republic (Hackett, 1992)
ISBN: 0872201368
$9.22

Aristophanes, The Birds (Oxford World’s Classics) (Oxford, 2009)
ISBN: 9780199555673
$9.46

Thomas More, Utopia (Norton Critical Edition) (Norton, 2010)
ISBN: 039393246X
$10.09

John Comenius, The Labyrinth of the World (Paulist Press, 1997)
ISBN: 0809137399
$12.71

William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Simon and Brown, 2011)
ISBN: 1936041928
$5.94

Voltaire, The Candide (Dover, 1991)
ISBN: 0486266893
$1.50

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (Oxford World’s Classics) (Oxford, 2008)
ISBN: 9780199535712
$6.95

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (Oxford World’s Classics)
ISBN: 9780199552573
$10.36

Karel Čapek, R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots (Wildside Press, 2010)
ISBN: 1557422559
$6.95