Histoire britannique

British Utopias

From Thomas More’s foundational Utopia to H.G. Wells’s Men like Gods (1923), Britain can boast a rich vein of utopian literature, imagining (more or less) ideal alternatives to the status quo, in the shape of far-away islands, proposed constitutions, possible futures or parallel worlds. The course proposes to take students through five centuries of British utopian writing across a range of well- and lesser-known texts, read against the backdrop of the major historical developments which shaped these political imaginings (Reformation, colonial expansion, Civil War, industrial revolution, etc.). Attention will be paid to the content and form of the utopias, and to the specific context in which each was produced: far from being chimerical elaborations, utopias will be approached here as theoretical, occasionally practical, responses to given historical situations.

The course seeks to introduce students to British utopian literature, building on and expanding their knowledge of early-modern and modern British history. It will train them to analyse the changing formal and political features of utopias across time, allow them to work through key-concepts in the history of political ideas (republicanism, communism, anarchism, etc.) and to practice commentary-writing on primary sources ranging from the 16^th to the early 20^th century.

session 1 

- Régime standard : a combination of oral and written assignements worth 50% of the final mark AND a 90-minute written exam at the end of the semester worth 50% of the mark.

- Régime dérogatoire : one 2-hour written exam

Évaluation session 2 

One 2-hour written exam

Usage de l’IA – Interdiction totale :

Dans le cadre de cet EC, l’usage de l’IA pour aider à la réalisation des travaux de contrôle continu soumis à évaluation est formellement interdit. Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire appel à une IA générative à des fins de documentation, recherche d’idées, construction, rédaction ou édition.

English Level C1

Analyser un document en le replaçant dans son contexte historique, géographique et culturel.

Communiquer par oral et par écrit, de façon claire et non-ambiguë, dans au moins une langue étrangère.

BLACK, Jeremy, A Short History of Britain, London, Bloomsbury, 2015.

CLAEYS, Gregory, Utopia: The History of an Idea, London, Thames & Hudson, 2020.

DAVIS, J. C., Utopia and the Ideal Society. A Study of English Utopian Writing 1500-1700, Cambridge, CUP, 1981.

JAMESON, Fredric, Archaeologies of the future: the desire called utopia and other science fictions, London, Verso, 2005.

MACHEREY, Pierre, De l’utopie !, Cherbourg, De l’incidence, 2019.

WRIGHT, Erik Olin, Envisioning Real Utopias, London, Verso, 2010

Students will be handed out a printed brochure of selected texts at the beginning of term. They will be given access to a variety of resources on the CEL (book chapters, articles, videos, weblinks). All uses of AI are prohibited in this class.