Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Pandemics and the Lesson of History
- Chapter 2 American Futures
- Chapter 3 Engendering Utopia
- Chapter 4 America and/as White Supremacy
- Chapter 5 American Spirituality
- Chapter 6 Black Escapes and Black Wishlands
- Chapter 7 Latinx Belonging in New World Borders
- Chapter 8 Educating Desire
- Chapter 9 Utopia after American Hegemony
- Chapter 10 Technological Fantasies
- Chapter 11 Utopian Spaces
- Chapter 12 Environmentalism and Ecotopias
- Chapter 13 Economic Justice
- Chapter 14 Renewing Democracy
- Chapter 15 The Time of New Histories
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Chapter 14 - Renewing Democracy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- The Cambridge Companion to American Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Pandemics and the Lesson of History
- Chapter 2 American Futures
- Chapter 3 Engendering Utopia
- Chapter 4 America and/as White Supremacy
- Chapter 5 American Spirituality
- Chapter 6 Black Escapes and Black Wishlands
- Chapter 7 Latinx Belonging in New World Borders
- Chapter 8 Educating Desire
- Chapter 9 Utopia after American Hegemony
- Chapter 10 Technological Fantasies
- Chapter 11 Utopian Spaces
- Chapter 12 Environmentalism and Ecotopias
- Chapter 13 Economic Justice
- Chapter 14 Renewing Democracy
- Chapter 15 The Time of New Histories
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Summary
The erosion of democracy has shown itself to be a necessary political precondition for the implementation of neoliberalism. Utopian culture quickly attuned itself to this crisis of democracy, and while there certainly are not many works of utopian culture that uncritically embrace the dominant post-1989 narrative that hails democracy as the universal cure for whatever ailment may exist in the world, we begin to see the emergence of works that foreground the profound danger inherent in the waning of democracy precisely in times of its instrumentalization by Western capitalist nations and the forces of economic globalization. Authors reveal neoliberal utopias as antidemocratic dystopias against which democracy must be defended. Moreover, we also see the emergence of novels that address a second pressing question: how can democracy survive when populations decide to democratically abolish it?
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024