Anarchism and Utopianism

This collection of original essays examines the relationship between anarchism and utopianism, exploring the intersections and overlaps between these two fields of study and providing novel perspectives for the analysis of both. The book opens with an historical and philosophical survey of the subject matter and goes on to examine antecedents of the anarchist literary utopia; anti-capitalism and the anarchist utopian literary imagination; free love as an expression of anarchist politics and utopian desire; and revolutionary practice.

Contributors explore the creative interchange of anarchism and utopianism in both theory and modern political practice; debunk some widely-held myths about the inherent utopianism of anarchy; uncover the anarchistic influences active in the history of utopian thought; and provide fresh perspectives on contemporary academic and activist debates about ecology, alternatives to capitalism, revolutionary theory and practice, and the politics of art, gender and sexuality.

Scholars in both anarchist and utopian studies have for many years acknowledged a relationship between these two areas, but this is the first time that the historical and philosophical dimensions of the relationship have been investigated as a primary focus for research, and its political significance given full and detailed consideration.

Laurence Davis is Lecturer in Politics at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Ruth Kinna is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University.

Contents List
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction; Laurence Davis
PART I: HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL OVERVIEW
1. Anarchism and the Aialectic of Utopia; John P. Clark
PART II: ANTECEDENTS OF THE ANARCHIST LITERARY UTOPIA
2. Daoism as Utopian or Accommodationist: Radical Daoism Reexamined in Light of the Guodian Manuscripts; John A. Rapp
3. Diderot's Supplément au voyage de Bougainville: Steps Towards an Anarchist Utopia; Peter G. Stillman
PART III: ANTI-CAPITALISM AND THE ANARCHIST UTOPIAN LITERARY IMAGINATION
4. Everyone an Artist: Art, Labour, Anarchy, and Utopia; Laurence Davis
5. Anarchist Powers: B. Traven, Pierre Clastres, and the Question of Utopia; Nicholas Spencer
6. Utopia, Anarchism and the Political Implications of Emotions; Gisela Heffes
7. Anarchy in the Archives: Notes from the Ruins of Sydney and Melbourne; Brian Greenspan
PART IV: FREE LOVE: ANARCHIST POLITICS AND UTOPIAN DESIRE
8. Speaking Desire: Anarchism and Free Love as Utopian Performance in fin de siècle Britain; Judy Greenway
9. Visions of the Future: Reproduction, Revolution and Regeneration in American Anarchist Utopian Fiction; Brigitte Koenig
10. Intimate Fellows: Utopia and Chaos in the Early Post-Stonewall Gay Liberation Manifestos; Dominic Ording
PART V: RETHINKING REVOLUTIONARY PRACTICE
11. Anarchism, Utopianism and the Politics of Emancipation; Saul Newman
12. Anarchism and the Politics of Utopia; Ruth Kinna
13. 'The space now possible': Anarchist Education as Utopian Hope; Judith Suissa
14. Utopia in Contemporary Anarchism; Uri Gordon
Index