Notes on nowhere : feminism, utopian logic, and social transformation /

This relatively brief book proposes--and carries out--a complex and ambitious undertaking: to locate utopianism in its political, philosophical, and literary past; to establish and to critique the relations between utopianism and feminism; and to demonstrate that some forms of feminist analysis have redefined utopianism in ways that make the notion of utopia uniquely valuable in the postmodern world. Burwell (Wesleyan Univ.) carefully lays the groundwork for her project in her opening chapter, which is essentially a compressed account of the philosophical underpinnings of utopian writing in Western culture. Without oversimplifying, the author analyzes the development of key strains of social philosophy, from Marxism to queer theory, that illuminate but can never totally explain away utopian literature. In the process of examining specific writers and their creations, Burwell discusses some recent feminist utopias that provide powerful metaphors and rich characterizations; these, though always subject to contingent realities, also demonstrate that literature can at least imagine personal and social transformation if not bring about such new realities. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students. R. Nadelhaft; University of Maine