Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature: A Commons Poetics

by Raphael Kabo, Bryan Cheyette (Editor), Martin Paul Eve (Editor)

Overview

Featuring readings of contemporary utopian poetry and fiction from authors such as Juliana Spahr, Mohsin Hamid, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lidia Yukavitch, and Cory Doctorow, this book investigates the commons - a form of organisation based on collectivity, communalism and sharing - as a type of transition between capitalist precarity and crisis and anti-capitalist futures. Each of the texts under examination was written in opposition to a particular crisis of the capitalist present - inequality, political representation, mobility, and climate change - and develops a particular mode of utopian 'commoning'.

Through its examination of these writers, crises and texts, this book reaffirms the use of utopianism as a tool for generating and representing alternative futures for a world in the midst of ongoing planetary crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350288591
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/23/2025
Series:	New Horizons in Contemporary Writing
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr Raphael Kabo is an independent researcher investigating cultural production in, and adjacent to, contemporary global activist movements. He is a co-founder of the anarchist close reading collective 'Beyond Gender' and the research network 'Utopian Acts'.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter One. Redefining Utopia: Utopian critical theory and utopian spatiality
Chapter Two. Escaping the Present: Precarity and surplus in a time of crisis
Chapter Three. Commons Beyond Capitalism: That Winter the Wolf Came
Chapter Four. Utopias Beyond Borders: Exit West
Chapter Five. Utopias Beyond Disaster: New York 2140
Chapter Six. Utopias Beyond Death: The Book of Joan and Walkaway
Epilogue
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature makes a brilliant case for the importance of the utopian imagination in literature and social movements. In readings of contemporary authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, Juliana Spahr, and Mohsin Hamid, Raphael Kabo shows that the dream of a better society isn't a luxury but a necessity.” —Christian P. Haines, Associate Professor, Penn State University, USA

From the Publisher