Separatist Narratives of Utopia: The Role of Boundary Phenomena in Defining Idealized Space(s)
Separatist Narratives of Utopia: The Role of Boundary Phenomena in Defining Idealized Space(s)

Summary/Abstract: One of the most potent and genre-wide literary phenomena is the concept of utopia, an atemporal non-place where the perfect society lives. History of utopian thinking and writing showed that the notion of perfection is relative and grounded in real-life socio-spatial and temporal context. Utopias are manifold, yet, they are often very similar, even across different historical, geographical and cultural contexts. They can be deemed as radical critiques, yet they rarely renounce or reconsider archetypal narratives that in everyday life actually led to the crisis that was the impetus for their creation. Moreover, they are often rooted in exclusionary visions and practices, and nurture separatist narratives. This paper examines the manifestations of the mentioned separatist narratives through insight into features of various utopian city concepts in literary and architecture, in the realm of their interconnected toposphere, sociosphere and ethosphere.

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