In his Republic Plato described his utopia as a land where people are divided into four classes depending on their intelligence, where a philosopher-king rules over all, and a guardian class spies and protects, where private property is forbidden and where children are taken from their parents to be raised for the state and taught only things that will increase their loyalty to the state. Eugenics is practiced, literature banished. Plato's vision has inspired socialist utopian fantasies and dystopian warnings alike. Students will read Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What's to Be Done?, H.G. Wells' Time Machine and A Modern Utopia, Evgeny Zamyatin's We, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. We will examine the ideas and plans of Plato, Charles Fourier, Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, Cecil Rhodes and others as they take shape on the pages of the novels we read. And we will consider the extent to which the utopias we read are prophesy or proscription.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Weiner

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: