1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910554247403321

Autore

Chrostowska S. D (Sylwia Dominika), <1975->

Titolo

Utopia in the age of survival : between myth and politics / / S.D. Chrostowska

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

1-5036-3000-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (232 p.)

Disciplina

335.02

Soggetti

Political science - Philosophy

Utopias

Critical theory

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The utopian hypothesis : from radical politics to speculative myth -- The emancipation of desire : preludes and postludes of May '68 -- The utopia of survival : critical theory against the state -- Epilogue : the displaced imagination.

Sommario/riassunto

A pathbreaking exploration of the fate of utopia in our troubled times, this book shows how the historically intertwined endeavors of utopia and critique might be leveraged in response to humanity's looming existential challenges. Utopia in the Age of Survival makes the case that critical social theory needs to reinstate utopia as a speculative myth. At the same time the left must reassume utopia as an action-guiding hypothesis—that is, as something still possible. S. D. Chrostowska looks to the vibrant, visionary mid-century resurgence of embodied utopian longings and projections in Surrealism, the Situationist International, and critical theorists writing in their wake, reconstructing utopia's link to survival through to the earliest, most radical phase of the French environmental movement. Survival emerges as the organizing concept for a variety of democratic political forms that center the corporeality of desire in social movements contesting the expanding management of life by state institutions across the globe. Vigilant and timely, balancing fine-tuned analysis with broad historical



overview to map the utopian impulse across contemporary cultural and political life, Chrostowska issues an urgent report on the vitality of utopia.