how to start an essay about utopian society

Essays About Utopia: Top 6 Examples and 9 Prompts

Struggling to write essays about utopia? Our essay examples about utopia plus prompts will be useful in your writing journey. 

Utopia refers to an imaginary world where perfect societies are created. Translated as “no place” in Greek, the term was coined by English Statesman Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book “Utopia.” In More’s Utopia, a political satire, people share the same ways of life and live in harmony.

Utopia in various contexts has been used to define a perfect society that has served as the foundation of several ideologies. However, it has also been slammed for propelling people to strive for the impossible and dismiss realities on the ground. Various schools of thought have risen to improve on the utopian concept.

6 Helpful Essay Examples

1. utopian thinking: the easy way to eradicate poverty by rutger bregman, 2. the schools of utopia by john dewey, 3. metaverse: utopia for virtual business opportunities right now by noah rue, 4. saudi’s neom is dystopia portrayed as utopia by edwin heathcote, 5. streaming utopia: imagining digital music’s perfect world by marc hogan, 6. what’s the difference between utopia, eutopia, and protopia by hanzi freinacht, 1. describe your utopia, 2. my utopian vacation, 3. what is utopian literature, 4. utopia vs. dystopia in movies, 5. plato on utopia, 6. utopia of feminists, 7. dangers of utopian thinking, 8. utopia in capitalism, 9. your utopia for education.

“The time for small thoughts and little nudges is past. The time has come for new, radical ideas. If this sounds utopian to you, then remember that every milestone of civilisation – the end of slavery, democracy, equal rights for men and women – was once a utopian fantasy too.”

The article brings to light a utopian vision for eradicating poverty. This vision involves providing annual income to the poor. While such a scheme has drawn criticism over the possibility of dampening beneficiaries’ inclination to work. The essay cites the success of a Canadian field experiment that provided the entire town of Dauphin a monthly income for four years and helped ease poor living conditions. You might also be interested in these essays about Beowulf .

“The most Utopian thing in Utopia is that there are no schools at all. Education is carried on without anything of the nature of schools, or, if this idea is so extreme that we cannot conceive of it as educational at all, then we may say nothing of the sort at present we know as schools.”

John Dewey , an American philosopher, and education reformist, contested the old ways of schooling where rows of students recite and memorize lessons. In this speech, he illuminates the need for education to be a lived experience rather than confined within the four corners of a classroom. Check out these essays about freedom .

“The metaverse looks like a good business opportunity right now, but emerging markets are always volatile, and changing laws or regulations could turn the metaverse from a profitable utopia into a cash-guzzling dystopia for business.”

Businesses of all sizes are beginning to enter the metaverse. As with all pursuits, early movers are gaining the biggest advantage in carving out their niche in the utopian digital world. But despite the blazing popularity of the metaverse, a degree of caution must still be exercised as the virtual space is uncharted territory for sustainable business profitability. 

“The inside is, of course, rendered as a bucolic techno-utopia, a valley of trees and foliage, the new Babylon. This is the great contemporary cliché. No matter how huge the building, how hideous the ethics, everything can be concealed by a bit of greenery.”

Saudi and humanity’s biggest ambition for a future eco-city is a trillion-dollar city in the middle of a desert. But the ways to attain this utopian city might not live up to the rhetoric it has been selling, as its gigantic promises of free-flowing energy and technology haven’t accounted for their resulting environmental costs. 

“Many were happy with their current digital tools… and just wished for slight improvements, though they frequently expressed concern that artists should be getting a bigger cut of the profits.”

The essay interviews a handful of music nerds and junkies and asks them to describe their utopia in the music streaming world. Some were as ambitious as seeing an integration of music libraries and having all their music collections for free fit into their phones. 

“The Utopian believes in progress. The Eutopian believes in critique and a rediscovery of simpler wisdoms and relationships. The Protopian believes that progress can be enacted by understanding how the many critiques and rediscoveries of wisdom are interconnected into a larger whole.”

A political philosopher, Freinacht dissects the differences between utopia, eutopia, and protopia in modern and post-modern contexts. He concludes that protopia is the best way to go as it centers on the reality of daily progress and the beauty of listening to the diversity of human experiences.

9 Interesting Prompts To Begin Your Essays About Utopia

Describe your idea of a perfect world. You could start your essay with the common question of what you think would make the world a better place. Then, provide an ambitious answer, such as a world without poverty or violence. Next, explain why this is the one evil you would like to weed out from the world. Finally, provide background showing the gravity of the situation and why it needs urgent resolution.

For this essay, try to describe your ideal vacation as detailed and colorful as possible to the point that your readers feel they are pulled into your utopia. Pump out your creative juices by adding as many elements that can effectively and strikingly describe your ultimate paradise.

More’s Utopia was a great success among the elites of its time. The groundbreaking book gave way to a new genre: utopian literature. For this writing prompt, describe utopian literature and analyze what new perspectives such genre could offer. Cite famous examples such as More’s Utopia and describe the lessons which could be mused from these utopian novels. 

Dystopia is the opposite of utopia. In your essay, explain the differences od dystopia and utopia, then provide a brief historical summary of how each came about. Cite film examples for each genre and try to answer which of the two is the more popular today. Finally, investigate to understand why there is greater leaning toward this genre and how this genre feeds into the fantasies of today’s audience.

While Plato never used the word “utopia” since he lived long before its conception, Plato is credited for creating the first utopian literary work, The Republic . Summarize the utopia as described by Plato and analyze how his ideals figure in the modern world.  

Interview at least three feminists and ask them to describe what a utopia for feminists would look like and why this is their ideal world. How is society expected to behave in their ideal world? Then, consolidate their answers to build the backbone of your essay. You may also search for feminist utopia novels and compare the concepts of these novels to the answers of the feminists you interviewed.

Genocides made to forward extreme ideologies have been linked to utopian thinking. Identify the dangers of aiming for the perfect society and cite past incidents where groups committed heinous crimes to achieve their utopia. To conclude, offer viable solutions, including the proper mindset, realistic setting of boundaries, and actions that groups should carry out when striving to create change.

Greedy capitalism is blamed for a slew of problems facing today: environmental abuse, labor exploitation, and a gaping divide in income equality that is stoking dissatisfaction among many workers and compelling calls to tax the rich. For your essay, enumerate the problems of capitalism and the remedies being sought to direct the capitalist endeavors to more sustainable projects.

Beyond Dewey’s utopia for the educational system, write your wishlist for how learning should be built at schools. Your utopian school could implement any policy, from having minimal assignments to more educational field trips and challenging activities every day. Finally, explain how this could elevate the educational experience among students, back up your utopian goals with research that also recommends this setup for schools. When editing for grammar, we also recommend improving the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting. For more guidance, read our explainer on grammar and syntax .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

View all posts

• Literary Terms

When & How to Write an Utopia

• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Write an Utopia

How to Write an Utopia

The first step in writing a utopian story is to decide what sort of ideal you want to explore. Maybe you’re interested in environmentalism and want to work out how an environmentally conscious society might work. Or maybe you want to try your hand at designing a society without poverty. Or maybe you believe that advanced artificial intelligence will be able to solve all of humanity’s problems. Whatever ideal you choose, make sure that you’re not just ignoring its flaws. All political ideals have their drawbacks, and a utopian story needs to account for these in some way (otherwise it will start to seem like pure fantasy rather than a thoughtful exploration of an idea).

Don’t overlook the possibility of exploring an ideal you don’t agree with! Some of the best utopian literature is written in a “devil’s advocate” tone – for example, if you believe in individual freedom and limited government, try writing a utopian story about a society with a powerful centralized authority. Can you begin to see why such a society might have appealed to people throughout history? And does it help you refine your arguments in favor of your own ideals? You might end up writing a dystopia  this way, but it’s even more interesting if you can make your utopia seem genuinely believable without fully supporting its underlying principles!

When to use Utopia

Since most utopias are described in short stories, novels, or films, utopian literature is a genre of fiction . However, it also has a place in some non-fiction   essays , especially those about politics. There’s a branch of political theory, called ideal theory , that’s essentially all about theorizing what the perfect society would look like. This is just like utopian literature, except that it’s expressed through arguments and logic rather than through stories.

In making an argument about ideal theory, it may help to give your reader a quick thought experiment in the form of a short utopian story. Although it’s not written as a formal argument, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (see  Examples of Utopia in Literature ) is widely considered to be a fairly persuasive case against the political theory known as “utilitarianism.”

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Literature

Essay Samples on Utopia

Writing an informative essay about a utopia.

Writing an informative essay about a utopia requires delving into the realm of imagination and exploring the intricacies of an ideal society. Utopias have long fascinated thinkers and writers, as they provide a canvas for envisioning a world free from the limitations and challenges of...

Utopian Characters In The Island And The Truman Show

Michael Bay the director of The Island and Peter Weir whom is the director of The Truman Show both have created films in a utopian theme. The comparison of the two selected films suggest that they each have false relationships connected to family and friends....

• The Truman Show

Utopian Society in Walden Two by B.F. Skinner

Walden Two is a book by B.F. Skinner, originally published by Hackett Publishing Company, INC. in 1948. This book is about two men who return from World War Two and go to visit a new society being built by a man named Frazier. The men...

The Dichotomy of Dystopian and Utopian Societies in "The Giver"

Lois Lowry's novel "The Giver" explores the concept of a society that strives for perfection, leading to both a utopian and dystopian reality. In the novel, the protagonist, Jonas, lives in a seemingly perfect world, where everyone is content and there is no suffering or...

Utopia by Thomas More: Dystopia Inside Utopia

A perfect society or a utopian society is a made-up community where political and social ideas are available in the way that there is peace amongst the people. Many people have different perspectives on their own personal Utopia. Thomas More had his own vision of...

• Thomas More

Stressed out with your paper?

Consider using writing assistance:

• 100% unique papers
• 3 hrs deadline option

The Idea of Reaching an Utopian Society, the Perfect World

According to Marianne Moyaert (2011), the concept of Utopia has been defined with the idea of a fantasized society and the desire for a better life, caused by feelings of unhappiness towards the society one lives in the present (p. 99). Where alternate visions of...

• Slave Trade

The Illusion of The Utopia in Zootopia Movie

A Utopia is an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect and that is what the city Zootopia is or at least it's what the directors want you to think. Although it appears that all of the animals get along that...

Thomas More's Utopia: The Birth of Literary Genre

In fact, this chapter is divided into two sections; a first one dealing with More’s Utopia, it aims at introducing More’s narrative as the founding text of the utopian discourse as it is known today. It has also as a purpose the attempt to define...

Utopian Society in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and "The Ones Who Stay and Fight"

Utopia is an imaginary world of ideal perfection ('Utopia Definition'). This definition portrays the societies created by the two authors Ursula Le Guin and N.K Jemisin in 'The ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' and 'The Ones Who Stay and Fight' respectively. Le Guin portrays...

• The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Analysis Of The Film Utopia By John Pilger

In his return to outback Australia, John Pilger has little good news about the current status of the First Australians. The truth he paints is eviscerating. The Aboriginals are still disproportionally poor and politically disenfranchised. The film makes you sit up and listen. The facts...

• Film Analysis

Best topics on Utopia

1. Writing an Informative Essay About a Utopia

2. Utopian Characters In The Island And The Truman Show

3. Utopian Society in Walden Two by B.F. Skinner

4. The Dichotomy of Dystopian and Utopian Societies in “The Giver”

5. Utopia by Thomas More: Dystopia Inside Utopia

6. The Idea of Reaching an Utopian Society, the Perfect World

7. The Illusion of The Utopia in Zootopia Movie

8. Thomas More’s Utopia: The Birth of Literary Genre

9. Utopian Society in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “The Ones Who Stay and Fight”

10. Analysis Of The Film Utopia By John Pilger

• Sonny's Blues
• Hidden Intellectualism
• William Shakespeare
• A Raisin in The Sun
• A Long Way Gone
• A Christmas Carol
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• A Farewell to Arms

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples

In the article below, find utopia essay examples and ideas gathered by our team . Describe an ideal society and start a philosophical discussion with our topics!

🏆 Best Utopia Essay Examples & Topics

📌 most interesting utopia essay topics, 👍 good utopia essay questions & titles.

• Comparison of Ideas Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ and Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ When it comes to ethics, he suggests that the prince should only be concerned with actions that are beneficial to a leader and ones that promote the well-being of his state.
• “Utopia” by Thomas More and the Human Pursuit of an Ideal Life The concept of an ideal life forms the core of utopia according to Saint Thomas More who developed it in the beginning of the 16th century.
• “New Atlantis” an Utopia by Francis Bacon Therefore, it is possible to state that Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis is aimed at criticizing the use of reason as the central principle for creating an intellectual utopia as the practice shows that the possession […]
• Discussion of “Utopia” by Thomas More Overall, this lack of private property in Utopia led to the people of the country having no desire to compete with each other through the accumulation of wealth as all of their belonging are the […]
• Planning History: Utopian Planners The garden city provided a channel for an organized relocation of the city dwellers to other towns to relieve the pressure on social facilities and the impacts of overpopulation in the major cities in the […]
• Two Opposite Worlds: “Utopia” and “1984” More criticizes the laws of the contemporary European society; he highlights that other countries, in the East for instance, have more fair laws; and after that he starts depicting Utopia, where all people live and […]
• Thomas More’s Utopia, Utilitarianism, and Technology Therefore, the meaning of “utopia” did not change to a tangible extent, as the modern meaning aligns with the one that More assigned to it.
• Sir Thomas More’s Utopia and the Transformation of England More uses the speech of Raphael Hythloday’s in Book I to refer to the tribulations that encompass the English society, and in Book II, he highlights the Utopian culture and put side by side the […]
• “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Utopia by Ursula Le Guin In the story, a single helpless child is subjected to extreme misery in exchange for the residents of the little city of Omelas receiving many advantages from a divine source.
• Literary Utopia vs. Utopianism – How Do They Differ? More’s idea of a utopia is a communal society that allows all members to contribute and benefit from the environment and social activities.
• Utopia: Types and Features of Ideal Societies Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the cornerstone of a utopian world is people’s willingness to use the potential of their brains, which allows for perfection but is not realistic.
• Utopia in Fante’s “Ask the Dust” and “LA Confidential” Film However, one of the main themes in the book is the description and reflection of the city of Los Angeles. Thus, the author presents to the reader the West American way of life, the main […]
• The Before Sunrise Film: A Story of Utopian Love It works fundamentally on two central mechanisms, realistic acting and an immense script that draws the audience towards the characters through their emotions and thoughts. The script was written in a way that makes an […]
• Research of Utopian Socialist Ideas The early socialists fail to make changes because the system that they proposed did not deliver its promises of security, prosperity, and equality. However, scientific socialists held that revolution and socialism were the major components […]
• Robert Nozick’s “Anarchy, State and Utopia” Scholars and thinkers of repute in the fields of philosophy, political science, and history during the ancient, classical, and contemporary epochs of learning have put forward theories that attempt to explain the origins, necessity, and […]
• “The Best State of a Republic and the New Island Utopia” by Sir Thomas Moore However, it is this kind of utopian society that existed in Jerusalem that shaped the views that this author had. The story of the island of utopia is a satire on the complicated society that […]
• American Revolution Rise: Utopian Views Therefore, the problem is that “the dedication to human liberty and dignity exhibited by the leaders of the American Revolution” was impossible because American society “…developed and maintained a system of labor that denied human […]
• Utopia for Society in “Minority Report” by S. Spielberg This presentation of Utopia on-screen is verisimilar and impressive due to the successful implementation of film techniques, though the movie itself is aimed at proving that it is impossible to live in a perfect world […]
• Utopia Versus Dystopia: Discussion However, the practical realization of Communist concepts in Russia, had resulted in millions of citizens loosing their lives and in those people, who managed to survive, during the course of Communist “social purges”, becoming the […]
• Utopian Society: National Socialism and Libertarian Democracy In its turn, this will effectively eliminate the need for the policies of social appeasement to be practiced in our society.
• Utopian Societies Depicted by Sir Thomas More In 1516 More completed his most well known and contentious work, Utopia, a work of fiction in which a imagined voyager, Raphael Hythloday, explains the political structures of the invented island nation of Utopia for […]
• Utopia by Sir Thomas More Review The aim of the study is to relate the perennial appeal of the text to the particular point of view it presents on economics and political relations; on family life and social structure; on art […]
• Classical Utopian Thought: “Utopia” by Thomas More In addition, the paper will try to understand the relationship of Utopia with the development of Classical Utopian thought, as well as, with the Christian Idealism that are some of the major themes of More’s […]
• Commonwealth in “Utopia” by Thomas More The comment presents an issue of Utopia, the controversy of More’s discussion that affects the commonwealth of the state that will be analysed to argue that the statement is true.
• Raphael Hythloday’s Ideas in Thomas More’s “Utopia” Raphael Hythloday, in books one and two was of the view that the government and the state operate within an economy for the benefit of the societies, they are given power and authority to dictate […]
• Utopia Fantasia in the “Black Mirror” TV Show Stated differently, this paper demonstrates how the concept of utopia has evolved from the quest for a virtuous and free life to the desire for people’s approval from the lens of an individualised life.
• Popularity of Utopian/Dystopian Young Adult Literature The box is entrusted in the Mayor’s care and a tradition of passing it from one Mayor to the next is established.
• Greece in a Utopian Economic Paradigm Leaders across the world use the ideas held in relation to a utopian society to put in place the necessary plans to improve the lives of the people.
• ‘From Within and Without’ a World of Utopia In this regard, the almost Marxist twist which I employed in the narrative depicts the dystopian world in line with the Marxist critical assessment of capitalism that points out the ever decreasing “unlimited faith in […]
• Definition of Anderson’s Utopia The ability to focus on the incurrence of events that may lead to negativity is alienated in utopia thus the community is not balanced in its gauging of the future.
• The Utopian Society Concept It foresees a society whereby gender neutrality will be tenable and that social responsibilities are not subject to the gender of an individual.
• Utopia and Contemporary Identity Theft It is because of the increase in the identity theft that people have started to face troubles in their financial activities.
• “Utopia” by Thomas More The name of the utopian land is the Green Spit; its inhabitants refer to it simply as “The Spit”. Most people in Barrel work at forestry, maintaining the rainforests, or zoology, looking after the animals […]
• The “Great” Humanitarian/Utopianist According to Daniel, music is helps us to have a better understanding of the whole society in terms of political and social aspects.
• Thomas More ‘s Utopia and the Problem a Selfish Community
• The Story of Evolution as a Utopia and the Evolution of the Story of Utopia
• An Analysis of The Creation of Utopia in Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Search for Utopia in The Great Gatsby
• The Vision of Utopia in Both The Scarlet Letter and Pleasantville
• Utopia and Hell Visions in the Works of More, Voltaire, and Sartre
• Tokyo Teleport Town: Between Utopia and Reality
• Criticism of Practical Application of Utopia in Brave New
• The Suppression of the Individual and Freedom to Choose Fate in Utopia by Aldous Huxley
• Trouble in Utopia: Similarities Between Thomas More’s Ideas and Karl Marx’s Communist Philosophy
• The Utopia Bubble and the Utopian Equation in the Movies
• Thomas More’s Utopia and Its Impact on English Society During The Renaissance
• Utopia and Dystopia in Science Fiction
• The Political Economy of Utopia: Communism in Soviet Russia, 1918–1921
• The Influence of the 14th Century Crises on Thomas More’s Utopia
• Understanding Gulliver‘s Travels in the Perspective of Utopia
• Utopia: Marriage and Utopian Society
• The Virtue and Vice of Reason in More’s Utopia
• Visions Of Utopia in Bellamy’s Looking Backward
• The Major Theme in Utopia by Thomas More and How His Work Relates to the Renaissance Period
• The Opinions of Thomas More on the Ideal Social Structure and Working Days in Utopia
• The Portrayal of Society in Thomas More’s Utopia
• Zaha Hadid: Making Utopia a Reality in Architecture
• Thomas More’s Utopia as a Criticism of 16th Century England
• Trouble in Paradise: Communistic Speculation and Thomas More’s “Utopia”
• Utopia and Dystopia in the Futuristic Novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Different Perceptions of Utopia and the Individuals of Shakespeare’s Time
• Utopia: A Comparison Between a Dream World and a Shady Society
• Utopian Literature of the Renaissance Social Myths: Utopia and the Social Contract
• The Effect of The Hindu Caste System on The Concept of Utopia
• Utopia and Determinism in Marx, Lenin and Stalin
• The Role of a Good City Thinking: Utopia, Dystopia and Heterotopia
• The Dilemma between Philosophical Idealism and Worldly Pragmatism in Thomas More’s Novel Utopia
• Utopia and Dystopia in The Future City
• The Theme of Utopia in Huxley’s Brave New World and Bay’s The Island
• The Exploration of Utopia in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
• Utopia vs. Dystopia Ideal Life State
• The Use of the Fantasy Genre in Behn’s The Rover and More’s Utopia
• The Utopia of Implementing Monetary Policy Cooperation through Domestic Institutions
• The Three Points of Thomas More’s Concept of Utopia
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/utopia-essay-examples/

"74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/utopia-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/utopia-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/utopia-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "74 Utopia Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/utopia-essay-examples/.

• Wuthering Heights Essay Titles
• Brave New World Paper Topics
• 1984 Essay Titles
• Blade Runner Paper Topics
• The Handmaid’s Tale Research Ideas
• Fahrenheit 451 Titles
• Letter From Birmingham Jail Titles
• Into the Wild Titles
• Allegory of the Cave Topics
• The Apology Research Ideas
• Animal Farm Research Topics
• The Tempest Essay Ideas
• A Modest Proposal Essay Ideas
• Call of the Wild Questions
• A Streetcar Named Desire Titles

Benefit from Reliable and Quality Service Today!

Your essay will take just a few minutes of your day! We'll craft it for you in a moment

Utopia Essay: Original Ideas and Tips

Exactly five hundred years ago the world-famous book “Utopia”, written by an English statesman, lawyer and philosopher Thomas More, was published in England. Although the book cannot be related to what is called popular literature, still it is well-known for formally setting a new literary genre. Literally, the word “utopia” can be translated as “nowhere”. Sounds like Peter Pan’s Neverland, doesn’t it? However, the place known as “utopia” is mostly associated with an enchanted land of beauty and abundance. Usually, it may be depicted as an ideal state with ideal society. Now this word may also relate to something you consider too good to be true. Still nothing prevents you from dreaming and therefore writing about what you think and feel is ideal for you. Besides, writing down some of your dreams can help you find out more about your own personality and worldview. It is an effective way for you to express freely how you see the surrounding reality, what you like and do not like about it, as well as to discover what you want to change and how to do it. Below you will find a few ideas for your writing and some guiding tips on what to base on.

Refer to the Plot of a Real Book

Tips #1 If you already have your favorite utopia story, created by a more or less famous writer, do not hesitate to build up your essay on its fundament. If not, take a book which describes either another world or an atypical life style of common earthmen. By the way, the island life of Robinson Crusoe can be a sort of nice example for romantics. Analyze the storyline and the way the characters live, the social group or even the whole society they belong to and how it functions. Add your personal opinion on whether it would be possible to establish this or that order for our reality, and make reasonable conclusions.

Tip #2 In case you are a fan of anti-utopias, use their main ideas to develop your own. Note that you can express both agreement and disagreement with an author’s point of view. State your opinion by providing more details and examples. Sum everything up and make the conclusions.

Focus on Some Problem of Our Today

Tip #1 Analyze an urgent problem, its causes and the ways it is influencing global processes. Also, search for its solutions or come up with your own, supporting them with well-considered arguments. Such essay is going to be future-oriented, so use more bright colors to describe the world which has recovered after a long serious disease.

Tip #2 Take one or two problems the mankind has been facing either since the dawn of times or since the times of scientific revolution and imagine what the world and our lives would be like if we never knew or never thought about them. For instance, you can write about how we all could live if nuclear weapon had never been invented.

Base Your Essay on Something Personal

Tip #1 Think about a place you like the most. It may be your own room, a cozy corner in your favorite café, the countryside and even another town or country. Whatever it is, let it be your own micro-utopia, where everything is on its place. Describe the place itself and how you feel or what people you meet there. Add a pinch of fantasy, but do not go too far, and you will certainly get it right.

Tip #2 Create your own Wonderland. Let your sane imagination do the job. However, you should remember about a few things which always require your greatest attention when you are writing an essay. They are logic and reasoning, so it is better to avoid inventing names for fabulous plants and animals. Be practical.

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published.

Place your order now

Writing the Future With Utopias

If we start our search for utopias from the United States, one vision, and one particular book, looms particularly large. This is Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel, “Looking Backward: 2000–1887.” Set in Boston in the year 2000, it follows the experiences of a man who, like an even more dormant Rip Van Winkle, entered a trance in 1887 and was brought out of his suspended animation in good health more than 100 years later. What he found, as the book’s preface explains, was “a social order at once so simple and logical that it seems but the triumph of common sense.” He tours the city, learning about the improved working conditions and the abundance of food and goods available to everyone. Boston, and the United States, have been transformed into a bountiful socialist utopia.

Soon after the novel was published in 1888, its publisher was acquired, the book was reissued, and it became tremendously popular. A million copies were sold in two years, with only “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Ben-Hur” outselling it, and in those cases over a longer span of time. Dozens of clubs were started to discuss the socialist ideas of the book. These groups , organized by “Bellamyites,” were called “nationalist clubs” because of negative associations with the term “socialism,” but they were closely related to the concept of socialism and did not have any particular relationship to what we now think of as nationalism. These clubs were only around for a few years, but they, and Bellamy’s book, were an important influence on the Theosophical movement , which went on to establish a dozen utopian communities in the United States. The impact on American writing was strong, too, with more than 150 books being written in response to “Looking Backward” — including exuberant sequels and several books opposed to the ideas of the original novel.

The new society in “Looking Backward” is based on ideas that precede the book; this society is also presented well in the context of the novel. The narrator, Julian West, is from the same time as his early readers, and it’s of course necessary for people from the year 2000 to explain to him how this strange new society works. The difference between the improved social order and that of 1887 is illustrated throughout the book, but perhaps never as memorably as when the narrator finds that a sudden downpour has begun and he — and, it seems, everyone else — is without an umbrella: “The mystery was explained when we found ourselves on the street, for a continuous waterproof covering had been let down so as to enclose the sidewalk and turn it into a well-lighted and perfectly dry corridor, which was filled with a stream of ladies and gentlemen dressed for dinner.” As one of the natives explains, “the difference between the age of individualism and that of concert was well characterized by the fact that, in the nineteenth century, when it rained, the people of Boston put up three hundred thousand umbrellas over as many heads, and in the twentieth century they put up one umbrella over all the heads.”

Bellamy’s novel presents a society of abundance in which each person is allotted a specific amount of what is produced, a bounty that is clearly greater than anyone would need but is still regulated. To mete out the many goods, Bellamy introduced what he called the “credit card,” the first use of the term, although it didn’t actually allow purchases on credit. Industries have been nationalized in the book, and this credit card system allows for the equal distribution of goods. Rather than paying anyone more, those who have to do particularly unpleasant work simply get to work fewer hours. Women have a more equal role in society and are part of the workforce, although “the heavier sorts of work are everywhere reserved for men, the lighter occupations for women.”

The plausible portrayal of women working in all roles in society was meant to show that — even in a society that has both men and women — it does not make sense to restrict women to only a few social roles.

Another intriguing model society, which responded to this particular aspect of Bellamy’s, was presented by American author Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her novella “Herland,” originally published in 1915. In this book, three adventurous men locate an isolated community that is entirely female. (The women of “Herland,” it is explained, are able to reproduce without men.) The girls and women are highly accomplished at all necessary work, from tasks that are traditionally considered feminine in U.S. culture, such as child-rearing, to building houses. They prosper, eschewing rote learning, governing their society deliberately, and wearing clothing that has numerous pockets.

While “Herland” does offer some suggestions as to the social order, and promotes certain types of feminist thought about society, it seems unlikely that Gilman was literally suggesting that the best society would be a secluded, nonindustrial one with only women. More likely, her plausible portrayal of women working in all roles in society was meant to show that — even in a society that has both men and women — it does not make sense to restrict women to only a few social roles. Aside from the implausibility of asexual reproduction, critics take issue with some other aspects of “Herland,” including its attitude toward native people, who are repeatedly disdained as “savages.” Despite such flaws, the novel remains a powerful work of imagination, particularly given that it was published before women even had the right to vote throughout the United States.

Utopian writing existed long before Bellamy and Gilman, of course. Plato first developed an ideal society of philosopher-kings (a community that entirely excluded poets) in his “Republic,” which predated the Christian Era by almost four centuries. But the genre of writing takes its name from a short book in Latin by Thomas More, “Utopia,” which was published in 1516. The book isn’t, strictly speaking, about the future — it describes a fictional society of that time. But it clearly suggests some ways that Western, and particularly English, society could be different in times to come. The book describes the highly systematic functioning of island residents, people who behave in many ways like monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict: They live communally, doing manual labor. More’s Utopia has been described as “a communist community, enhanced by Christian values.”

There are a few differences from either the modern-day communist concept or monastic life, of course. Unlike a monastery, the land of “Utopia” is a heterosocial place, and people get married and raise children. Each person who is about to marry is presented with his or her potential partner, naked, and allowed an inspection — sensible, More explains, because one considers even a horse very thoroughly for any sign of ill health before purchasing it. It seems difficult to understand this procedure as a serious proposal, but, at the same time, it might point out that marriage is impractical between two people who know very little about each other in other ways. Why would we demand to take the saddle off the horse and inspect it closely while not giving the same concern to our betrothed?

One lesson in future-making — or imagining and consciously trying to contribute to a particular future — that can be seen here is that utopian ideas don’t have to be entirely serious to be effective in provoking people to change their thinking and move toward a better future. The pre-marriage inspection can be read in several ways — as making fun of people’s obsession with physical attractiveness, for instance, or as making fun of marriage as an institution that establishes ownership, like the ownership of a horse, of one person by another.

Even implausible aspects of utopian fiction can be useful. They can point out, as with any satire, how outrageous our current society is.

“Utopia” is almost certainly not a full-on parody of More’s society. It presents an alternate society in which there are few laws, people live communally and sustain themselves by cultivating and making what they need, and people pursue learning throughout their lives. Most of the ideas are presented, as with Plato’s “Republic,” as ways society could be reordered and improved. So, it’s interesting to see a few cases in which the customs of the Utopians strain credulity. One effect that this can have is stimulating multidimensional thinking about current society and the way that it’s organized. Another effect is that it can remind us to be critical and thoughtful. Even if we like the direction an author is taking and the type of society that is being proposed, we shouldn’t accept every new idea presented as if it were a new doctrine.

More’s Utopia, Bellamy’s year-2000 Boston, and Gilman’s all-female society are all presented as ideal, or close to ideal, as was the republic that Plato described. Those who study utopian thought and writing distinguish, however, between a utopia or “no place” and a eutopia or “good place.” A utopia is an invented society, existing beyond history as an alternative to present societies, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to be better, so a fictional society that is presented as negative and deeply flawed, a dystopia, can also be seen as a type of utopia. There are also notable novels that are set “no place” and present societies that have some positive and some negative aspects; these include Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” and Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon.”

One way that utopias can function is by portraying a plausible alternative to the current social configuration. More’s book prodded readers to think about how communal living without private property might be possible. Bellamy’s made it seem plausible that a well-planned society could produce more than enough for everyone to live well and could happily distribute that wealth equally rather than leaving some in poverty. And, even if readers of Gilman’s book didn’t think that an all-female society was actually the best idea, they could probably believe many aspects of the portrayal of women working in every possible role in a community. If we can imagine such possibilities within the framework of fiction, this can make it easier to think of them in our own reality.

Even implausible aspects of utopian fiction can be useful. They can point out, as with any satire, how outrageous our current society is. They can also encourage us to think critically as we imagine a better society. Also, they might help to expand the limits of what we consider possible. Because utopian fiction takes us away from the specifics of our current place and situation and transports us to no place, it allows us to come to new insights that can then be applied to the world we live in. Perhaps an all-female society existing for thousands of years isn’t plausible, but if it were, wouldn’t the women in it be capable of doing anything that was needed? If so, isn’t it reasonable to allow women to occupy any role in our mixed-gender society? Utopian thinking is of course often associated with silliness and impossible, impractical ideas, but when it’s done effectively, shifting our thinking from our current place to no place can help us get out of a rut.

A future-maker might do something clever by coining a term or inventing something specific. This can be useful, but this is seldom as powerful as developing an overall, coherent vision that can be worked toward, engaged with deeply, or opposed. Although it’s interesting to note that Bellamy is (at least approximately) the inventor of the credit card, his real influence is seen in dozens of organizations founded to think through and promote his work, and the dozens of books written to continue the conversation he started.

There is room in a utopia for plausible, sensible alternatives to today’s practices. Likewise, there is room for the absurd and the outrageous, which can provoke our critical faculties, opening our minds to unusual — and transformative — ideas.

Nick Montfort is a professor of digital media at MIT. He is the author or co-author of several books published by the MIT Press, including “ The Future ,” from which this article is adapted.

Related titles in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series :

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

How to Think Like a Utopian

Strive to be both idealistic enough to envision a new world and pragmatic enough to steadily build it.

By Malia Wollan

“It’s important that you have some idea of where you want to go, some kind of dream,” says Rutger Bregman, 33, a Dutch historian and author who has written about utopian thinking. Don’t underestimate the power of outlandish ideas. Throughout history, many significant milestones — democracy, the abolition of slavery, equal rights for men and women — began as utopian dreams. “It always starts with people who are first dismissed as unreasonable and unrealistic,” Bregman says.

To engage in utopian thinking, you can’t be myopically focused on the present. There’s nothing inherent about our current political, economic and social realities; people made these systems and can make them anew. To envision something novel, read more history and less news. A sensationalistic daily news cycle can constrict your ability to see the world as anything but dangerous, violent and mean. “There’s nothing as anti-utopian as the product that we call the news,” Bregman says. Let your interests be expansive. Read philosophy and psychology. Look around and think, It doesn’t have to be this way. “Take something like poverty; why does it exist?” he says. “We’ve heard things like ‘the poor will always be with us,’ but is that really true?” What if poverty weren’t taken as a given? Sometimes it helps to imagine what future historians will make of us. What will they see? How will they judge us?

Utopianism doesn’t require you to be optimistic. In fact, that kind of “don’t worry, everything will work out” view can lead to complacency. Instead, be hopeful in a way that moves you toward action. To be a utopian takes grand, ambitious thinking. But when it comes to implementing these ideas into policies and practice, Bregman suggests a humble, tinkering approach; overzealous attachment to utopian blueprints can be dangerous.

You can be a utopian and still enjoy dystopian fictional narratives. “Dystopias tend to be much better entertainment,” Bregman says. Notice, though, if those plotlines start eroding your view of human nature. To think like a utopian, it helps to believe that humans are fundamentally decent. Be cautious if your utopias all involve technological fixes or escapist colonies on Mars. The work of imagining futures is hard. “In this era of climate breakdown and the extinction of species, it’s obviously easier to think of how it all could end than how it could become much, much better,” Bregman says. That better world, that is the work.

Explore The New York Times Magazine

The Race to Reinvent CPR: A new, high-tech approach called ECPR  can restart more hearts and save more lives. Why aren’t more hospitals embracing it ?

On the Route of El Tren Maya: A new train in Mexico is opening up the Yucatán Peninsula, for better or worse. Here’s what a photographer saw on his journey .

An Enduring Restaurant Menu: Go behind the scenes at Zaytinya in Washington, D.C. , which over two decades has remained one of the celebrity chef José Andrés’smost beloved spots.

 Matt Farley’s Strange Universe:  Why did the musician put a song about the writer Brett Martin on Spotify? The answer, Martin found, involves a remarkable and lucrative scheme  to game the way we find music today.

Finding   a Foreign Language: A father worried about his son’s ability to fit in . But when his child fell in love with Russian, he flourished on a trip to Central Asia.

The ‘Colorblindness’ Trap: Nikole Hannah-Jones examines how the fall of affirmative action may be viewed as part of a 50-year campaign to undermine the progress of the civil rights movement .

Understanding Utopia: A Comprehensive Definition and Guide

What is utopia, historical overview of utopia, utopia in literature, how to identify utopian themes, utopia vs. dystopia, why does utopia matter, utopia in modern media, utopia and political theory, how to create your own utopia.

Picture this: a world where everything is perfect, where there are no worries, no struggles, and everyone lives in harmony—sounds like a dream, right? That's the magic of a utopia. This blog breaks down the definition of utopia, explores its rich history, and dives into its profound impact on literature, media, and political theory. So, whether you're a curious mind or a passionate scholar, get ready for a fascinating journey into the world of utopia.

The term "utopia"—a word that has sparked imaginations and fueled countless discussions—translates to "no place" in Greek. It's an interesting paradox, isn't it? A word that symbolizes perfection and harmony actually means 'no place'. But that's exactly what utopia is: an imagined place or state where everything is perfect. This is the simplest definition of utopia.

Let's break it down further:

• Imagined place or state: The first part of the definition of utopia highlights that a utopia is not a physical location you can pinpoint on a map. It's a concept, an idea that exists in our minds.
• Everything is perfect: The second part emphasizes the flawless nature of a utopia. It's a place where all problems are solved, where every individual is happy, and harmony prevails.

So, when you think about utopia, don't imagine a specific city or country. Instead, picture a world—your world—where everything aligns with your idea of perfection. That's your personal utopia.

But remember, like a rainbow, utopia is beautiful to behold but impossible to reach. It's this elusive quality that makes the concept of utopia so fascinating and worth exploring. So, get ready to dive deeper into the captivating world of utopia as we unravel its history, its presence in literature, and its relevance today.

The concept of a perfect society isn't a new one. In fact, it's been around for thousands of years, appearing in the works of ancient philosophers, religious texts, and historical documents. But the term "utopia" wasn't coined until 1516, when Sir Thomas More used it as the title of his book, 'Utopia'. His book described an ideal society on an imaginary island, thus giving birth to the modern definition of utopia.

Let's take a step back in time:

• Plato’s Republic: One of the earliest references to a utopian society can be found in Plato’s 'Republic', where he envisages a society governed by philosopher-kings, where justice reigns supreme.
• Sir Thomas More's Utopia: Fast-forward to the 16th century, Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' introduced the term to the world. His utopia was a peaceful island where property was communal, and people lived in harmony.
• Utopian Socialism: During the 19th century, the idea of utopia took a political turn with the emergence of utopian socialism, which advocated for the creation of an egalitarian society.

From these historical examples, you can see that the concept of utopia is as old as civilization itself. Even though the definition of utopia has evolved over the centuries, the core idea remains the same: the pursuit of a perfect society.

Interestingly, while utopia seems like a universally desirable concept, it has often been met with skepticism and criticism. Many argue that the idea of a perfect society is not only unattainable but also somewhat dangerous. Why? Well, that's a topic for another section, my friend. For now, let's turn the page and explore utopia's role in literature.

Books have a magical way of transporting us to different worlds, don't they? Now, imagine entering a world where everything is perfect. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, this is what utopian literature offers - a peek into perfect societies, where harmony, justice, and equality prevail. Let's take a quick tour through some notable examples in literature, shall we?

• 'Utopia' by Sir Thomas More: As we discussed earlier, More's 'Utopia' was the book that started it all. It described an ideal society with no private property, where people lived in harmony.
• 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry: This modern classic takes us to a world without pain, war, or fear, but at the cost of individuality and emotion. It's a gripping tale that makes you question the definition of utopia.
• 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula K. Le Guin: A truly unique take on utopia, this book explores the concept of an anarcho-syndicalist society on an alien planet. It's a must-read for anyone interested in utopian themes.

Utopian literature allows us to dream of a better world, but it also serves a more important purpose. It encourages us to question our own society and its flaws. By exploring the definition of utopia through different lenses, these books push us to reflect on what a perfect society truly means. Is it a world without conflict? A society where everyone is equal? Or perhaps, a place where individuality and diversity are celebrated? The answer, of course, is subjective and differs from person to person.

Now, while utopian literature paints a picture of a perfect world, it often serves as a backdrop for a darker reality. This leads us to the concept of dystopia, which is essentially the opposite of utopia. But let's save that discussion for the next section. For now, let's just bask in the warm glow of utopian dreams.

So, you've read a book, watched a movie, or even heard a song and you're wondering if it has utopian themes. How can you tell? Well, let's break it down into a few key signs to look for when identifying utopian themes.

• A Perfect Society: The most obvious sign of a utopian theme is the portrayal of a perfect society. This could mean a world without war, poverty, or injustice. If everything seems a little too perfect, you're likely dealing with a utopian theme.
• Equality and Justice: If the story revolves around a society where everyone is treated equally and justice prevails, then you're definitely in utopia territory.
• No Conflict or Suffering: In a utopia, there's usually no conflict or suffering, as these are seen as imperfections.
• Harmony with Nature: Many utopias emphasize living in harmony with nature, valuing sustainability and environmental conservation.

But remember, not everything that glitters is gold. Sometimes, a story might start out with a utopian setting, only to reveal hidden flaws or dark secrets. This is a common plot twist in many dystopian stories, where the initial definition of utopia is turned on its head. But we'll get into that more in our next section.

For now, keep these clues in mind next time you're enjoying a story. You might be surprised how often utopian themes pop up once you know what to look for. So, what's your favorite utopia?

Now that we have a clear definition of utopia and how to spot its themes, let's look at its polar opposite: dystopia. While a utopia represents an ideal society, a dystopia portrays a society filled with suffering and injustice. But what makes these two concepts so interesting is how closely they can intertwine. Let's break down the differences and similarities.

• Perfection vs. Imperfection: A utopia is, by definition, a perfect society. Everything works as it should, and people live in harmony. On the other hand, a dystopia is a society where everything has gone wrong. It's filled with corruption, oppression, and hardship.
• Freedom vs. Control: In a utopian society, people are usually free to live as they please, with no restrictions or controls. In contrast, a dystopian society is often marked by strict control and lack of personal freedoms.
• Hope vs. Despair: Utopian themes are often filled with hope and optimism for the future, while dystopian themes convey a sense of despair and pessimism.

The fascinating part is when a narrative starts as a utopia but gradually reveals dystopian elements. Often, it's a critique of the very idea of a perfect society — and a warning that what seems perfect on the surface can hide darker realities underneath. This narrative twist is a favorite among many authors and filmmakers, raising thought-provoking questions about our own society.

So, next time you're watching a movie or reading a book, see if you can identify whether it leans more towards utopia or dystopia. Is it a perfect world with dark secrets, or a troubled society with glimmers of hope?

Now that we know the definition of utopia and its counterpart, dystopia, let's address the question you might be asking: why does any of this matter? Why should we care about these imaginary societies?

Firstly, utopias serve as an ideal we can strive towards. They provide a vision of a world where everything functions perfectly, where everyone is happy, and where peace reigns. This vision can inspire us to work on improving our own society, even if we know that a true utopia is unattainable. It's like aiming for the stars — even if we miss, we might still land on the moon.

Secondly, utopias also function as a tool for critique. By showcasing a perfect society, they highlight the flaws in our own. They force us to confront uncomfortable truths about inequality, injustice, and corruption. They push us to question the status quo and inspire us to imagine a better, fairer world.

Finally, utopias offer a fascinating exploration of human nature. Can humans ever create a perfect society? Are we inherently flawed, destined to repeat our mistakes? Or can we learn, grow, and build a better world?

So, while utopias might be imaginary, their impact on our real world is significant. They inspire us, challenge us, and stimulate deep thought and debate. As you delve deeper into your journey of understanding utopias, remember that it's about more than just a definition — it's about what utopias reveal about us and the world we live in.

Now, let's turn our focus to something more familiar: modern media. How does the concept of utopia play out in the TV shows, movies, and books we consume today?

Interestingly enough, utopia isn't as common in modern media as you might think. This might be because a world without conflict doesn't make for a very engaging story. However, when utopias do appear, they often serve as a backdrop for a deeper, often darker, narrative.

Take, for example, The Hunger Games trilogy. On the surface, the Capitol appears to be a utopia: it's wealthy, technologically advanced, and its citizens live a life of luxury. However, this utopia is built on the suffering of the districts, leading to a rebellion. The utopia, it turns out, is a dystopia in disguise.

The same pattern appears in many other works of modern media. From movies like The Matrix to TV shows like The Good Place, modern storytellers love to play with the idea of a utopia that hides a darker truth.

So why is this theme so common in modern media? Well, it allows storytellers to explore complex themes like inequality, power, and human nature. It also keeps audiences on their toes, as they try to figure out what's really going on beneath the surface.

Next time you watch a movie or read a book, pay attention to how the concept of utopia is used. You might be surprised at what you find!

Ever noticed how the definition of utopia seems to change depending on who you ask? That's because utopia is not just a place—it's a concept, and like many concepts, its interpretation can vary widely. This is especially true in the field of political theory.

Political theorists often use utopias as a way to explore their ideas about the 'perfect' society. For example, Karl Marx's vision of a classless society is a kind of utopia. It's a world where everyone has what they need, and no one is exploited. This idea has been hugely influential, shaping political movements around the world.

But Marx's utopia is not the only one. Other political theorists have proposed their own versions of utopia. Some imagine a world where everyone is equal, others a world where everyone is free to do as they please. Some dream of a world without government, others of a world where the government takes care of everything.

The point is, there's no one-size-fits-all definition of utopia in political theory. The 'perfect' society depends on what you value: equality, freedom, security, and so on. And that's why the conversation about utopia is so fascinating—it's a chance for us to explore our deepest values, and to imagine how we might build a world that reflects them.

So next time you hear about a political theory, remember: it's not just about laws and policies. It's also about dreams, hopes, and the endless pursuit of utopia.

Now that we've explored the definition of utopia in different contexts, let's dive into a fun exercise: creating your own utopia. If you had the power to shape a society, what would it look like? What values would it uphold? Let's embark on this thought experiment together.

Firstly, start by brainstorming the values that matter most to you. Is it equality, freedom, sustainability, compassion, or something else? Remember, there are no right or wrong answers here. Just jot down whatever comes to your mind.

Next, think about the structures that would need to be in place to support these values. If you value equality, what measures would ensure that everyone gets a fair shot at success? If sustainability is your concern, how would your utopia promote eco-friendly practices?

Now, let's get creative! Visualize your utopia. What does it look like, feel like, smell like? Feel free to be as imaginative as you want. Remember, this is your utopia, and you call the shots!

Finally, consider the potential challenges your utopia might face. No society is perfect, and it's important to anticipate and plan for possible hiccups. This is not to make you feel discouraged, but rather to make your utopia resilient and adaptable.

Creating your own utopia is more than just a fun exercise. It encourages you to articulate your values, to envision a better world, and to think critically about how to achieve it. It's an exercise in hope, creativity, and problem-solving—all skills that are handy in the real world too. So, have you started imagining your utopia yet?

If you enjoyed exploring the concept of utopia and want to learn more about bringing such ideas to life, check out the workshop ' From Dream to Reality: The Magic of Concept-Art ' by Hope Christofferson. This workshop will teach you how to transform your abstract ideas and visions into tangible concept art that can inspire and captivate others.

Live classes every day

Learn from industry-leading creators

Get useful feedback from experts and peers

Best deal of the year

* billed annually after the trial ends.

*Billed monthly after the trial ends.

Stanford Humanities Today

Arcade: a digital salon.

My focus on “utopian” as a case study for the scope of critical semantics might at first seem surprising, since the project Roland Greene outlines in Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes rejects “canonical” terms to focus on “words of an everyday character” (14, 13). [ 1 ] These words, Greene demonstrates, “are not the most ordinary,” but despite primarily being “important within local fields of knowledge such as rhetoric or political theory, [they] tend to appear in general discourse as though they were ordinary, their capaciousness taken for granted” (13, 14). As we may recognize, the word “utopian” fits in only awkwardly within this framework. Along with its famous lexical neighbor, “utopia”, it has certainly not escaped the attention of readers, both early modern and modern. Yet, this “not the most ordinary” of words does seem to be—or at least become—of “everyday character” within the century it was coined; unlike the original examples of Five Words (language, blood, world, invention, and resistance), the term “utopian” originated in the sixteenth century itself. It thus seems primed to mobilize the project of critical semantics in new ways, as it provides us a glimpse of the extravagant capacities of recent words that are (in theory) free from, or at least less burdened by, past linguistic associations.

The term “utopian” originally denoted specific things: as a noun, it referred to inhabitants of Thomas More’s Utopia (“the utopians”), and as an adjective it described the nature of this fictional place (“the utopian commonwealth”). But over the course of the century it became ubiquitous in different forms of writing and came to refer to varied entities—including kinds of people, cognitive formulations, and imaginative states. Its liminal status—simultaneously “everyday” and “canonical”—enables us to test the bounds of which words might escape our purview if we do not focus on their “ordinary” nature despite their canonicity in our critical discourse. In this essay, I explore how “utopian” was an extraordinary word that became ordinary, a particular term that became general, and a reference to a physical place that became an idea. As such, the notion of “change” that lies at the “foreground of [Greene’s] argument” (8) about critical semantics is vital to understanding the capaciousness of “utopian”, making it ideal to think with about how words at the threshold of canonicity and ordinariness can expand the scope of the project.

I’ll begin by focusing on the ways in which “utopian” aligns with the project of critical semantics, which explores “words that early modern people not only thought through but lived with” (5). We see such vibrancy in the usages of “utopian”. Unsurprisingly, it is an adjective that describes particulars of Thomas More’s text. Ralph Robinson’s 1551 translation discusses “This boke of ye vtopian commen wealth,” and in the second edition of the translation (1556), the “Printer to the Reader” mentions “The Vtopian Alphabete.” [ 2 ] But its usage became much more expansive within a few decades, as writers across varied disciplines applied it in diverse contexts. Robert Burton writes in Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) that “Vtopian parity is a thing to be wished for rather then effected,” and John Milton declares in his challenge to censorship and licensing, Areopagitica (1644), that “to sequester out of the world into Atlantick and Eutopian polities which never can be drawn into use, will not mend our condition; but to ordain wisely as in this world of evill, in the midd’st whereof God hath plac’t us unavoidably.” [ 3 ] These examples signal the word’s migration from its initial reference to a particular place to a general idea—an idea that often carried negative connotations of impracticality and impossibility, whether in an unachievable “Vtopian parity” or as inaccessible “Eutopian polities.” Even when not used negatively, it denoted impractical, idealistic, or unrealistic beliefs about society’s perfectibility. For example, John Donne uses it to describe purity or inexperience (“To Sir Henry Wotton” (1633)):

if men, which in these places live, Durst look in themselves, and themselves retrieve, They would like strangers greet themselves, seeing then Utopian youth grown old Italian (43-46).

And in another instance, Samuel Purchas uses it to describe a general ideal place ( Purchas his Pilgrimage (1613)): “no Vtopian State comparable to theirs.” [ 4 ] These examples demonstrate how, losing its rootedness in the specific island of Utopia, “ utopian” becomes omnipresent as a concept of unreality, impracticality, and even impossibility for a wide range of early modern writers.

These qualities also hint at the word’s fit with another goal of critical semantics: to consider terms that run across languages, eras, disciplines, and genres. “Utopian” is definitionally transcultural. Derived from the Greek word ou-topos (no-place), but also punning on eu-topos (good place), the nonexistence or the ideality of the word is graspable only in translation. These dual cross-linguistic connotations drive the humor in More’s Utopia on the topic of the perfect island’s unlocatability, as the author’s humanist interlocutors across Europe construct elaborate paratextual materials to bolster the idea that this place actually exists. But the question of existence—or we might say the certainty of its non-existence—was not a laughing matter; it becomes a serious point of distinction for travel-writers who established the realities of their discovered realms by distinguishing them from Utopia’s fictionality and its no-placeness. As Humphrey Gilbert writes in Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia (1576), “ YOV might iustly haue charged mee with an vnsetled head if I had at any time taken in hand, to discouer Vtopia , or any countrey fained by imagination: But Cataia is none such, it is a countrey, well knowen to be described and set foorth by all moderne Geographers. ” [ 5 ] Gilbert reverses the central tenet of More’s text, relying on the idea that his readers are universally in agreement about Utopia being a “countrey fained by imagination.”

“Utopian” thus crosses disciplines and genres, like the five words that Greene uses to demonstrate the work of critical semantics. It spills over from fiction to travel-writing to political tracts, and even to proto-scientific ventures. For instance, in England, Samuel Hartlib’s network of reformers relied on utopian models to propose improvements in agriculture, education, and natural philosophy. The Hartlib circle’s ideas reflect the term’s aspirational quality (its ideality, we might say), rather than its impracticality. Here, “utopian” refers to achievable improvements. Contrary to the dismissive tone adopted by travel writers, the word signifies future opportunities for Hartlibian reformers who use it to outline visions or plans of proposed projects in England, Ireland, and even the New World. [ 6 ] Perhaps their embrace of the ethos of utopian projects underscores the extreme oscillations between reality and fiction that are latent in the term itself—rather than stress the differences between the two, Hartlibians suggest that the conditions they observe in their extant societies can be molded into the utopian domains that so far only exist in their imaginations. In this formulation, utopian endeavors seem to represent not a difference in kind from actuality but a difference in degree. Reaching the fictional ideal becomes the goal in the actual world, and it is only a matter of time before the two realms converge.

These sixteenth- and seventeenth-century applications of the term already gesture to how “utopian” aligns with perhaps what we might consider the key methodological feature of critical semantics. The project “name[s] words” not only in terms of “semantic integers that one finds in a dictionary” but also through the “concepts that shadow them” (3-4). It looks for “models for semantic change” (8) to track words through “conceits…[that] are native to the long sixteenth century” (10). It can be productive to consider the ambivalent significations of “utopian” under this rubric. I propose the conceptual “shadow” of “utopian” is “hypothetical,” another term with a rich scope in early modern discourse. The word “hypothetical” was associated with conjecture, speculation, even fanciful suppositions, and its usage ranged across disciplines, from astronomy (as we see in the writings of Copernicus) to logic (see, for instance, Abraham Fraunce Lawiers Logike , 1588) to experimental philosophy (see Robert Hooke’s Micrographia , 1665). [ 7 ] Long sixteenth-century thinkers commonly understood the term as suppositional, or as “something supposed or assumed to be true without proof or conclusive evidence.” [ 8 ] In an era of increasing attention to empiricism and experiment, this tie with supposition could have negative connotations, and a hypothesis could be dismissed as “A groundless or insufficiently grounded supposition”—a dismissal starkly similar to those leveled against utopian endeavors. [ 9 ] I wish to suggest that the term “utopian” offers early moderns a hypothetical way of approaching the world: as conjectures, speculations, and suppositions about what could be. In other words, the idea of the “hypothetical” did not only designate for early modern thinkers a method for interpreting the world. It also captured a state of being that was repeatedly ascribed to utopian realms: as-yet-unproved ways of existence that could be dismissed as impractical goals or celebrated as aspirational ideals. Thus, if we fully connect the conceit to our word of choice, we could say that utopian embodies a hypothetical ontology; it emerged as a concept of non-existence. The resonances between the flexible, cross-disciplinary applications of “hypothetical” and “utopian” illuminate why, for early modern thinkers, the latter term could transform from an extra-ordinary word associated with a specific fictional place into an idea or a notion of speculation, conjecture, or idealization. Such varied usages of “utopian” solidify its status as a capacious concept that structured crucial intellectual and philosophical questions of the time on epistemology, truth, and ontology.

As we can observe, “utopian” is a perfect candidate in our search of new transcultural keywords. It is the ambivalence of the term—like that of the original Five Words —that animates its varied applications. The word bolsters the idea that conceits drive the work of critical semantics. It also underscores that if Five Words outlines a “keywords” project, its objects of study are conceptual keywords. But how might such new keywords function not only as mere examples of critical semantics as it exists, but also as intellectual instruments that put pressure on—and can thereby broaden—the project’s central claims and methodology? Greene already embeds such a question in the “Introduction” to Five Words. He concludes this chapter by highlighting the problem of method: “I really do not know that the project of Five Words can be done” (14). This uncertainty about outcome is of course, an invitation, not only to test this “resolutely elemental approach” that operates at the “cellular level” (3) (by thinking through words rather than through historical events, authors, or works), but also to examine the scope of the project itself. In this spirit, I’ll conclude by gesturing to the ways in which “utopian” not only underscores the conceptual (conceit-based, perhaps metaphorical) foundation of critical semantics, but also how it intimates the project’s expandability.

Like the initial Five Words , “utopian” functions as a “vesse[l] of change” (173): even though it emerges from a work of fiction, and even though it sometimes operates as a metonym for fictionality itself, its greater efficacy lies in continually putting pressure on the bounds between reality and fiction. For our purposes, “utopian” highlights that the changes we trace through “shadow” concepts or “conceits,” are latent in keywords themselves. In other words, we must think of “utopian” as a word-concept, rather than treating the two parts of this hyphenated term as separate or suggesting that one precedes the other. I say this because it is utopian’s cross-linguistic playfulness with ideas—and specifically with the duality of no-placeness and ideality—that motivates users to test, expand, even mock the bounds between truth and falsehood. Notions of conjecture, unfeasibility, and ideals undergird the word. It is by applying the central methodological feature of critical semantics that we fully grasp this complexity; its conceptual shadow (of hypothetical) enables us to fully recognize how “ utopian” becomes an ordinary word that circulates, and finally comes to stand in for, these underlying notions. This brief exploration also reveals that the term—ubiquitous in twenty-first century discourse as a referent to a generic ideal society or idea, and as a word that has been completely stripped from its particular links to More’s humanist text and context—was shifting gears from the particular to the general almost immediately after its invention. Users in the long sixteenth century were deploying it just as extravagantly and loosely (or generously, we might say) as we do today. Thus, as “utopian”, within a century of its conception, comes to refer to ideas as well as people and places, and as it oscillates between noun and adjective, it raises questions that take us beyond those raised by the original Five Words : How do words become ordinary? How (and how soon) does the shift between particulars and generals occur? How might adjectives, or for that matter other grammatical constructs, reshape a project that originally focused on nouns? What would it mean to expand critical semantics beyond the long sixteenth century (the temporal limitation set in Five Words ), given that there might be similarities in early modern and modern evolutions of certain terms? Such questions suggest that it is not only movements across languages, disciplines, and genres, but also change across time that is vital to the project. They also highlight how the processes of transformation, rather than final meanings, are important in understanding these keywords. Ultimately, as we turn to conceits to uncover ideas underlying a word, and as we recognize the ways in which early moderns “lived with” diverse undertones of a word that now seems “canonical” to us, we also discover how transcultural keywords were themselves concepts in potentia .

I would like to thank Tara Lyons and Vin Nardizzi for their comments on earlier versions of this essay.

[1] Roland Greene, Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes (Chicago: Chicago UP, 2013). All citations to the book are by page number.

[ 2 ] Thomas More, A fruteful, and pleasaunt worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called Vtopia. Trans. Ralph Robinson (London, 1551); Thomas More, A frutefull pleasaunt, [and] wittie worke, of the beste state of a publique weale, and of the newe yle, called Vtopia, trans. Ralph Robinson, 2 nd ed. (London, 1556).

[ 3 ] Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1621); John Milton, Areopagitica; a speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of vnlicens'd printing, to the Parlament of England (London, 1644).

[ 4 ] John Donne, Poems (London, 1633); Samuel Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimage; or, Relations of the world and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered (London, 1613).

[ 5 ] Humphrey Gilbert, Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia (London, 1576).

[ 6 ] For the classic study on this topic, see Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626-1660 2nd ed. (New York: Peter Lang, 2002). I am referring to the ethos and language of texts such as Gabriel Platt’s A Description of the Famous Kingdome of Macaria (1641) and William Petty’s The advice of W.P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlib. For the advancement of some particular parts of learning (1648).

[ 7 ] See for instance, Andreas Osiander’s anonymous Preface to Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543). Osiander declares the heliocentric theory to be a hypothesis that was used for calculations, or to “save appearances,” rather than demonstrating actual conditions of the universe. Abraham Fraunce, in The lawiers logike (London, 1588) writes “The woorde, hypotheticall, which is héere commonly vsed, is neither proper nor fit for this purpose. For, in absolute copulatiue and discretiue axiomes, there is no ὑπόθεσις, no condition at all.” In Micrographia (London, 1665), Robert Hooke discusses “The hypothetical height and density of the Air.”

[ 8 ] In this section, I draw on the OED definitions of the related terms “hypothesis” and “hypothetical” to trace their varied meanings in the early modern period. See “hypothetical, adj. and n.”. OED Online. June 2017. Oxford University Press. (accessed December 10, 2017) and “hypothesis, n.”. OED Online. March 2018. Oxford University Press. (accessed May 29, 2018).

[ 9 ] See “hypothesis, n.”. OED Online. March 2018. Oxford University Press. (accessed May 29, 2018).

Join the colloquy

Critical Semantics: New Transnational Keywords

Anston Bosman

This Colloquy arises from a 2018 MLA Convention session I organized on behalf of the Forum on Comparative Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. The original call for papers read simply: "Extend and critique Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes , Roland Greene's 2013 reorientation of early modern studies. What does Greene miss?

Craft a 'lightning talk' using one new keyword." As session organizer, I received a bumper crop of submissions, each passionately advocating for its own concept. Several papers extended Five Words in surprising ways, but only a handful took the further step of directly engaging Greene’s innovative "critical semantics" as a practice or method. Four of those composed the panel in New York City, and Roland Greene agreed to offer each of them a formal response. The resulting conversation brought diverse approaches to bear on a single focused intent: the deployment of philological skill to capture the flow and entanglement of ideas across European cultures. Although rooted in early modern studies, each contribution was quickened by twenty-first-century urgency, mobilizing critical semantics as an archaeology of what Arjun Appadurai would call transnational ideoscapes (1996: 36-37). The four papers and Greene’s response yielded powerful questions that overflowed our conference timeslot, and as audience members—including many whose excellent proposals I had been unable to include—expressed their admiration for the format as well as the speakers, it became clear that publication was warranted. We thank ARCADE for hosting this Colloquy as the next step in our conversation.

Our topic is timely, because we live in an age of keywords. They structure our research, our publications, and our teaching. From EEBO to Google n-grams, the keyword search has become a modern equivalent of dipping a pen into ink, where, as the nursery rhyme goes, "some find the thoughts they want to think." Humanists have learned from, or perhaps bowed to, scientific ways of mapping knowledge by digitally analyzing the strength and pattern of meaningful terms, which engineers call "keyword co-occurrence networks." When we submit abstracts for conferences or journals or course catalogues, keywords must be provided; indeed, for this Colloquy’s original panel the MLA program required five keywords—why must it be five?—that were not Roland Greene’s words or the titles of our presentations. But keywords today are not confined to bureaucratic subtexts. On the contrary, they increasingly structure the titles of scholarly lectures, articles, and monographs. Literary titles, which used to trade in riddling questions or ambiguous genitives, now unspool as paratactic lists: consider the examples of Franco Moretti’s Graphs, Maps, Trees (2005), Sianne Ngai’s Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (2005), and Caroline Levine’s Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015). How starkly the listed terms differ from the neologisms of high theory! In fact, almost all the diction in these titles belongs to what Raymond Williams in 1976 called "a general vocabulary ranging from strong, difficult and persuasive words in everyday usage to words which, beginning in particular specialized contexts, have become quite common in descriptions of wider areas of thought and experience" (2014: xxvii). After all, the title of Keywords itself derives from a household object, no less important for being used every day.

For an object that is continually being declared obsolete, the physical key has proved astonishingly resilient. (Although smartphones can now unlock your house or car, Google has signaled the limits of virtuality by manufacturing a low-tech security key that physically authenticates users, supposedly reassuring them that their data is safe from hackers.) Yet the key’s stubborn materiality contrasts with the abstraction that some of Williams’s successors emphasize in their modern anthologies of keywords. A striking example is Keywords for Today , a 2018 volume produced by an Anglo-American scholarly collective and edited by Colin MacCabe and Holly Yanacek. This text variously updates, replaces or adds new entries to Williams’s collection of complex words. For our purposes, the additions and subtractions are telling: gone, for example, is the entry on materialism , while the very first entry explores a new keyword, which is abstract . In line with this remarkable substitution, some entries call attention to how twenty-first-century vocabulary shrinks from its material base, such as the evolution of market into the "hardened abstraction" of the market , with its tyrannical definite article (2018: 231). Other entries, however, seem blind to their own abstraction, as when image skims over the physical consequences of socially mediated aesthetics as distorted by technology. By contrast with Keywords for Today , Greene’s Five Words elaborates its critical semantics "by trying to make tangible what is often abstract and obscure" (2013: 8), offering literal analogues to its polysemous terms (the palimpsest for invention , the pendent for language , and so forth) in order to underscore the dynamic relay between the material and the discursive in early modern cultures.

Greene blazes two further pathways unfamiliar to modern literary taxonomists. The first is historical . By slowing the brisk diachronic sweep of keyword etymologies down to the Renaissance and Baroque, Greene tunes in to subtler rhythmic patterns, finding in the so-called "discovery of language in early modern Europe" not only new words but new relations between them: thus terms like tongue and language are described as "neither dependent on nor independent of one another," but instead "pendent" or reciprocally clarifying and energizing (53). Elsewhere, Greene catches terms in mid-transformation, charting how blood is redefined by the "literalism of the sixteenth century" and the "vitalism of the mid-seventeenth" (115). The other pathway is comparative . Williams long ago noted that "many of the most important keywords … either developed key meanings in languages other than English, or went through a complicated and interactive development in a number of major languages," but predicted that the necessary "comparative analysis" would require an "international collaborative enterprise" (2014: xxxi). The difficulty of such work is evident in the case of Keywords for Today , which explores only one term recognizably borrowed from beyond the Anglosphere—the Sanskrit karma , which is quite properly adduced to demonstrate "the danger of trying to limit English semantics to its traditional homelands" (2018: 207). Alert to such danger, in Five Words Greene has provided a single-authored study that boldly and succinctly takes up Williams’s internationalist challenge.

Or at least he has done so for the terms blood, invention, language, resistance, and world . "Many words," Greene writes, "are like these words," continuing: "I have envisioned extending this sort of project to every word on a given page by Rabelais, Sidney, or the Inca Garcilaso, distributing the terms to scholars with the injunction not only to explain their semantic changes over time but to set each discrete word in motion with the others" (2013: 14). Such is the gauntlet taken up by this ARCADE Colloquy. Each essay collected here is to double business bound: the authors have each chosen a single transcultural keyword from the early modern period, and they have set their keyword in motion with Five Words as well as cognate or "pendent" terms they find essential. The reader will observe that not all their words are nouns. Nor are their keywords all self-evidently "ordinary," and on occasion they explicitly put that descriptor under pressure. The contributors draw into the discussion features of early modern worlds that Five Words did not have the space to map, including visual culture (John Casey’s color ), radical politics (Crystal Bartolovich’s common ), the poetics of ecology (Vin Nardizzi’s grafting ), and the philosophy of science (Debapriya Sarkar’s utopian ). Far from some rote parataxis, however, these keywords allow the reader to adapt Greene’s tools for ever deeper exploration. On its publication, Five Words was lauded no less for its stylistic elegance than for its conceptual ambition. Bookended by that study and Greene’s generous response to the four initial essays, this Colloquy probes new interventions in literary studies and rewards the reader with unexpected results.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Greene, Roland. 2013. Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

MacCabe, Colin and Holly Yanacek, eds. 2018. Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, Raymond. (1976) 2014.   Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

View the discussion thread.

What are My Colloquies?

My Colloquies are shareables: Curate personal collections of blog posts, book chapters, videos, and journal articles and share them with colleagues, students, and friends.

My Colloquies are open-ended: Develop a Colloquy into a course reader, use a Colloquy as a research guide, or invite participants to join you in a conversation around a Colloquy topic.

My Colloquies are evolving: Once you have created a Colloquy, you can continue adding to it as you browse Arcade.

Discovering Humanities Research at Stanford

Stanford Humanities Center

Advancing Research in the Humanities

Humanities Research for a Digital Future

The Humanities in the World

• Interventions
• Republics of Letters
• Editorial Board
• Executive Team
• Friends of Arcade

• What is Accessing Inquiry?
• Library of Congress TPS
• Workshop Overview
• Current Workshops
• Short Events
• Professional Development FAQs
• Program Sites
• Project Team
• Extended Bibliography
• Grades 6-8: Civics & History
• Grades 8-10: Schools-Asylums
• Grades 8-10: Civil War
• Grades 9-12: Progressive Era
• Grades 9-12: Research-Civics
• Developing a K-12 Disability History Curriculum
• FAQ - Reform to Equal Rights
• EL-HSS Collaborations PLC
• Learning Standards
• Universal Design
• Sample Lessons on Disability History
• Model Lessons on Immigrant History
• Know & Support Students
• Inquiry Strategies
• Engagement Strategies
• Assessment Strategies
• Inclusive Civics Education
• Civil War - Background
• Civil War Veterans for Teachers
• Henry H. Meacham
• Louisa May Alcott
• Lewis Henry Douglass
• Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
• William Harvey Carney
• John Donovan
• Patrick Guiney
• Hannah Stevenson
• James Granger Munroe - Vietnam War Veteran
• U.S. Sanitary Commission
• Invalid Corps
• Chelsea Soldiers’ Home
• Tewksbury Almshouse
• Grand Army of the Republic
• Togus Soldiers Home
• Dayton Soldiers Home
• U.S. Pension Bureau
• Hospital for Insane Soldiers
• Prosthetics
• Civil War - Maps & More
• Civil War Sources
• Exhibit Acknowledgements
• Teachers' Room
• Teachers Background Essay
• Cast of Characters
• Changing Transportation Technology
• Eye Witness Accounts
• Analyzing Ads and Products
• The American System
• Links & Literature
• Acknowledgements
• Picture as a Message
• Multiple Points of View
• A Letter to Dolly Stetson
• A Tradition of Self Government
• Lesson 1: Through the Eyes of Sojourner Truth
• Lesson 2: Setting the Rules
• The Principle of Equal Brotherhood
• The Choicest Spirits
• Lesson 1: A Window into the Communitarian Moment
• Lesson 2: Creating a Utopian Community
• Forge of Innovation
• Local History Projects
• Student Websites
• Teaching Resources

Creating a Utopian Community

Share this page.

Grades 10-12 Lesson Plan Using the Radical Equality Online Exhibit

Making Ideals Real in History and in the Classroom

Lesson Overview

Students/class will read the goals and objectives for the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (NAEI). Class will discuss why they believed that the founders had these goals and objectives. Students will then design their own utopian communities based on the goals and objectives of the NAEI but in present-day America. They will create a map, description, and constitution for their community. After completing their communities students will research, discuss, and explore the NAEI website to compare and contrast their version with the historical version. Groups will read the NAEIconstitution and analyze it. As a final step students will reflect on the desires for and difficulties of creating change in society and how the NAEI demonstrates these issues.

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE RECOMMENDED

Prior to participating in this lesson, students should have basic understanding of the utopian communities that formed during the 1840s. They should have a basic understanding of the Market Revolution and Industrial Revolution and how it had changed American industry in the 1830s and 40s. Lastly, they should be aware of the many reforms that were taking place across the country, many of which were a result of the Second Great Awakening.

Lesson Time

Two class periods–if the lesson is taught in full. Parts of the lesson could be cut down or used separately.

Learning Objectives

This lesson meets many of the  MA Curriculum Frameworks Standards .

By the end of the lesson students will…

• The goals of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry
• The key ideas behind NAEI’s constitution

Understand:

• Why it is difficult to actualize ideals and beliefs.
• Why and how people try to change society.
• Why utopian communities failed.
• How NAEI connects to the larger communitarian movement and the reforms of the 1840s.

Be able to:

• Create their own utopian society with a map, description, and constitution
• Analyze the difficulties of creating change in society
• Evaluate the successes and failures of utopian societies
• Identify the key goals and objectives of the Northampton Association
• Link the Northampton Association to the larger utopian movement

Language Objectives

• Students will read the Northampton Association’s constitution
• Students will write their own constitution for their utopian society
• Students will write their own description identifying the key aspects of their community
• Students will use the narrative and pictures on the Northampton Association website to compare and contrast their society with the read NAEI
• Students will draw and label their utopian society
• Students will write and discuss to reflect on the larger understandings about change and moral activism

Essential Questions

• What is a Constitution? Why do people create them?
• Why and how do people try to change society?
• How do people formulate ideas about what is best for themselves, their community, and their nation?
• Why does money play such a significant role in the survival of communities?

All of the handouts and worksheets needed for this lesson are on the  Downloads  page. You can either download Word versions of the items or link to pdf files in Google Docs/Google Drive.

• List of key goals, ideals, concerns of the Northampton Association (see Downloads)
• Assignment sheet, organizer and rubric for utopian activity
• Link back to key pages for kids to explore which would answer the above questions
• Reflection questions
• Art paper, pencils, rulers, markers, access to internet

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

• Introduce and teach background knowledge (see above)
• Have students answer the following writing prompt at the beginning of class:
• “What would a perfect society look like?”
• Use this prompt as a way to introduce the goals and ideas of the Northampton Association

PART 2: CREATING YOUR OWN UTOPIA

• Distribute the Creating a Utopian Community Assignment sheet to students and review golas and answer clarifying questions about the goals of the NAEI
• Discuss with class: Why would people want to create a community with these goals? Are they good goals? Are they possible goals?
• Read through the rest of the assignment and rubric with students and clarify any questions about the tasks students need to complete.
• Distribute guiding questions for the constitution making and description parts of the assignment.**Side note: Depending on class level and needs, the teacher might want to break the assignment into three distinct sections instead of giving all three tasks to students at once. Students could first complete their community description, then their constitution and finally their map. Keeping groups 2 or 3 students will allow for better comprehension and products.
• Give students a clear time frame for each part of the assignment. Make sure to recommend how much time they spend on each aspect of the project and how they will be weighted for assessment.
• Once complete, have students present their work to the class.

PART 3: EXPLORING THE REAL NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION

• Have students read key parts of the Constitution/By-Laws of the Association. Use teacher discretion to decide whether this needs to be a full group activity or if students could hand the level reading on their own. The Constitution/By-Laws have roll-over quotes that draw out key points to help student identify the rules and objectives within the text.
• Have students further explore the website encouraging or requiring them to read the background summaries and look at the associated documents.
• Have students return to their Utopian Community groups and fill out the Venn Diagram comparing their community to the real NAEI.

PART 4: CONCLUSION

To end this lesson revisit the objectives with students to assess their understanding. Use the “Understand” objectives and essential questions as wrap-up discussion questions to help students synthesize the information they have been researching.

Latest Blog Posts

Upcoming workshops.

© 2020  Collaborative for Educational Services - All Rights Reserved

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Utopia — A “Perfect Society” in “Utopia” Written by Sir Thomas More

A "Perfect Society" in "Utopia" Written by Sir Thomas More

• Categories: Society Utopia

About this sample

Words: 1016 |

Published: Jan 21, 2020

Words: 1016 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: Sociology Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3.5 pages / 1599 words

1 pages / 3161 words

1 pages / 585 words

4 pages / 1709 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Utopia

The importance of Utopia in the Renaissance cannot be overstated. It provided a platform for critical thinking, social commentary, and the exploration of alternative possibilities. By presenting ideal societies, writers and [...]

Utopias and dystopias are two seemingly opposite concepts that have been explored extensively in literature, philosophy, and popular culture. While utopias depict ideal societies where everything is perfect and harmonious, [...]

An ideal society has been a subject of philosophical discourse, imagination, and aspiration for centuries. It represents a vision of a harmonious, just, and equitable community where individuals live fulfilling lives. While the [...]

The concept of a utopian government has been a subject of much debate and speculation throughout history. The idea of an ideal society with a perfect government has been explored in literature, philosophy, and political theory. [...]

A human-made reality with the sole purpose of providing endless pleasure with a series of unceasing of ups, but to what cost? Utopia is a personal view unique to an individual, however, as humans, we share a common desire for [...]

Government is an important part of any country. Whether the officials in charge are skilled or not at their jobs can make or break the country. The United States of America will probably be headed more toward "break" due to the [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free