“The 21st century is no longer familiar with positive utopias”
Researchers analyse visions of the future from antiquity until today – lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence on apocalypse and utopia, starting 14th October in Münster, Germany
Press release of the Cluster of Excellence, 2 October 2014
According to the assessment of cultural scientists, the 21st century is no longer familiar with positive social utopias in literature, arts and politics. “Instead, the challenges of the future such as climate change and digitalisation are often depicted in an apocalyptic language and rhetorically linked to the end of the world”, explains literary scholar Dr. Christian Sieg from the University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” in Germany. “In the light of economic crises, wars and environmental disasters, we have for decades been looking to the future with scepticism.” There are rather few positive visions of the future. “Today, hardly any people buy into the utopian master narratives of the previous century such as socialism or the belief in progress by technology.” The scholar announces the Cluster’s coming public lecture series on “Visions of the Future between Apocalypse and Utopia”.
Organised by the Cluster of Excellence’s postdoctoral programme, the lecture series will begin on 14th October. It will address the history of apocalyptic and utopian thinking from antiquity until today. The topics will range from prophetic texts from ancient Egypt, philosophical concepts of the future and Richard Wagner’s “The Artwork of the Future” to female Spanish Fascists’ utopian image of woman. Green utopias of the present and cinematic narratives like “Avatar” and “Cloud Atlas” will also be examined. The lectures will be held on Tuesdays from 18:15 to 19:45 p.m. in lecture theatre F2 of the Fürstenberghaus, Domplatz 20-22.
Unknown island of Utopia
Dr. Christian Sieg
According to Christian Sieg, “Globalisation has gathered the world so closely together that it is difficult today to still imagine an unknown place ‘Utopia’ as a model for an ideal future”. “At best, desires are associated with colonising faraway Mars. We no longer dare to conceive universal utopias. The idea of being able to do things completely different and far better has lost in plausibility, which is also due to our historical knowledge of problems in building ideal societies.” People today are at best looking for solutions for the future in subdomains such as environmental protection or human rights.
English statesman and author Thomas More (1475-1535) described as “Utopia” (“no-place”) a fictitious island with ideal social conditions, thus criticising the conditions in Europe at that time, the expert explains. “Ever since More, utopias have served as alternative drafts to a contemporary society.” At best, utopian visions today are conceivable as fairy tales, and films such as “Avatar” borrow from their ideas. “The series’ 14 lectures will show that apocalypse and utopia are two historically significant visions of the future, which created images and narratives that persist today.” Representatives from the fields of history, law, political science, German studies, philosophy, theology, archaeology, Egyptology and musicology will speak in the lecture series.
“People have always given thought to the future, availing themselves of different media”, according to Christian Sieg. “The oral accounts of visions were joined by literature, music, film and architecture.” Early examples are the accounts of visions in the New Testament. “John’s apocalypse describes a concept of salvation which was to comfort the oppressed Christians in the Roman Empire. Here, the end of the world becomes the beginning of a new, better age, the Heavenly Jerusalem.” This idea is in many cases also reflected in architecture, as the scholar argues using an example from the lecture series: “In the early modern period, urban planning was in some cases guided by descriptions of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Cities thus became a sacral space.”
Until today, literature has also resorted to the Bible’s apocalyptic motifs, as the literary scholar explains. The stereotypical phrase of the vision’s account “I saw” can be found in Günter Grass’ “The Rat” (1986), for example. The emotional reaction to dreams and prophecies that is typical of biblical prophets is taken up in Christa Wolf’s “Cassandra” (1983). “The modern age, however, often uses the term ‘apocalypse’ differently from the Bible. It no longer refers to a promise of salvation but is equated with the final end of the world. There is a rudimentary post-apocalyptic life at the most, as many science fiction books and films such as ‘The Day After’ (1983), ‘I Am Legend’ (2007) or ‘The Road’ (2009) show.”
“The drafts of the future’s political and religious functions are just as manifold as the media which transport them”, underlines the cultural scientist. Hence, many 20th-century utopias served as warnings of threats or as alternative drafts to a present that people wanted to change. In history, visions for the future also served to secure hegemony, as was the case with the First Crusade, which was justified as a Biblical eschatological battle. The National Socialist propaganda term “Thousand Year Reich” also stood in the tradition of apocalyptic conceptions. “After all, drafts of the future also served as a religious articulation of the afterlife, as did those visions that were reflected in ancient tomb portraits. By using examples like these, the lecture series will illustrate how religious and political elements are interwoven in visions of the future.” (vvm/ska)
Programme
| 14.10.2014 | Klaus Vondung (Siegen) | Utopische Entwürfe – apokalyptische Visionen: Träume vom besseren Leben? |
| 21.10.2014 | Catherine Keller (Drew University) | Klima-Apokalypse, grüne Utopie: Auf dem Weg zu einer Politischen Theologie der Erde |
| 28.10.2014 | Joachim Friedrich Quack (Heidelberg) | Prophetische Texte aus dem griechisch-römischen Ägypten |
| 04.11.2014 | Rubina Raja (Aarhus) | Zukunftsvisionen im Grab. Grabporträts und Gesellschaft in Palmyra |
| 11.11.2014 | Jay Rubenstein (University of Tennessee) | Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: Apocalypse, History, and the First Crusade |
| 18.11.2014 | Matthias Riedl (Budapest) | Die Welt als Kloster – Joachim von Fiore und sein Verfassungsentwurf für die zukünftige Menschheit |
| 25.11.2014 | Liliya Berezhnaya (Münster) | Wie man eine Heilige Stadt baut: „Neue Jerusalems“ im osteuropäischen Raum der Frühen Neuzeit |
| 02.12.2014 | Maren Conrad (Münster) | Nach dem Ende – Postapokalyptische Visionen in Literatur, Film und Computerspiel des 21. Jahrhunderts |
| 09.12.2014 | Wolfram Steinbeck (Köln) | Welterlösungsutopien: Richard Wagner und „Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft“ |
| 16.12.2014 | Andreas Urs Sommer (Freiburg) | Utopische Geschichtsphilosophie –geschichtsphilosophische Utopik |
| 06.01.2015 | Toni Morant i Ariño (Münster) | „Die großen Tage kommen“: Zum utopischen Staats- und Frauenbild der spanischen Faschistinnen |
| 13.01.2015 | Josef Früchtl (Amsterdam) | Neue große Erzählungen: Das Kino von „Avatar“ und „Cloud Atlas“ |
| 20.01.2015 | Tatjana Hörnle (Berlin) | Die Zukunft des Strafens in multikulturellen Gesellschaften |
| 27.01.2015 | Antje Flüchter (Bielefeld) | Indien im „Warteraum der Geschichte“? Wie der Westen zur Zukunft der Welt wurde |
Winter semester 2014/2015
Tuesdays,6.15 bis 7.45 p.m.
Lecture hall F1 at the Fürstenberghaus
Domplatz 20-22
48143 Münster