Each of our books addresses these issues and questions. Each text offers an argument, indirectly or directly, for a particular social approach (or against an approach) to these issues. So as you read, keep these questions in mind and mark your next with the number of the issue/question listed below:
1. What ought to be the main goal of an ideal society?
When “personal freedom” is the main goal (as it is in our society), one person’s expression of freedom may interfere with other people’s basic freedoms, and all sorts of conflicts arise. On the other hand, if community stability is the goal, then personal liberty has to be limited. So what seems to be the main goal in a utopian vision?
2. Given the main goal of a society, what social strategies will ensure the achievement of that goal?
We have a constitution that rather vaguely spells out the social agreements that ensure that government will protect, not override, our freedoms. But we have to have laws to keep the peace among all these free citizens and we have public schooling to ensure equal opportunity and unity of values (whether it’s working or not is debatable).
If the main goal is eliminating conflicts and preventing chaos, then more strict social (and even genetic) engineering may be called for. Strict censorship, authoritarianism, even totalitarianism may be called for. There may be restrictions on the family, particular approaches to sexuality—who may have children, who may not, who may marry, who may not, etc.
3. Given the main goal and the main social strategies for achieving that goal, there will also be a set of values or principles or ideologies that are taught to the citizens (or conditioned into them) or that everyone accepts as truth. These values or principles or ideologies need to be accepted by the citizens so that the goals of the society are met and the strategies and structures in place make sense and seem perfectly natural to everyone.
Our American values are based partly on the values of the French revolution—brotherhood, liberty, and equality. We basically are conditioned to see ourselves as free agents who share a kinship with other Americans; as long as we are law abiding, we all deserve equal opportunity and equal protection under the law. However, another set of very strong values derive from our religious ancestors who came to America to practice the religions of their choice. These religious values can support our civic values (most religions believe in freedom of religion and equality in God’s love) but they can also conflict with those values as when certain religions want to deny basic rights and freedoms to other citizens based on religious values or doctrines.
In other existing societies today, religious values may have more influence than civic values. Or values centered around community may be more powerful than values of personal freedom or equality.
4. The goals, the strategies, and the values all lead to specific outcomes or strategies for the following:
the family unit (even to the point of eliminating the family),
marriage,
parenting
education
economy
labor and work
sexual behavior
Ideally, all of these sub-structures should serve the “super-structure” of the society. For example, if you want an entirely free society, then restrictions on the number of children people can have doesn’t make sense. If you want a unified society, then all children must be reared in the same way, under the same conditions. If you want a society free of genetic diseases, then you have to have some stipulations about who can and who cannot have children.
Obviously, our emphasis on freedom means that we can have very few restrictions on the family, on marriages, and on childrearing, on what people choose to do for a living, etc.
But another country’s emphasis on maintaining a singular religious ideology, for example, means a lot of restrictions on individual choice and freedom.
5. Naturally, in order to achieve one outcome means giving up other possible outcomes that may seem desirable. Problems arise or can arise from what has been banned but still desired.
A free society is naturally going to change. What was considered “immoral” in one period will no longer seem immoral in another. People who want to maintain traditions will find those traditions losing out to new “lifestyles.” Freedom breeds conflict over definitions (because everyone is essentially free to define “happiness” and “value” in their own way. Having unlimited choices can also be unbearable and depressing.
A restricted society doesn’t change much which means that some spirited citizens will want to escape or rebel. The population may be more vulnerable to outside influence because they have not been encouraged to think for themselves.
6. The writers’ arguments and purposes:
In utopian or dystopian literature, the writer is making a claim, directly and/or indirectly about how he or she thinks society ought to be organized.
And their claims are often based upon their definitions of key terms such as “happiness, fairness, justice, peace, freedom, love” etc. The definitions may be stated directly or the reader may have to tease them out of the text, but learning to identify how each book defines the same set of terms that seem always to apply to utopian or dystopian visions.
Inherent in any utopian vision is a critique of the writer’s contemporary society, and the utopian vision is either a way to shock contemporary readers into questioning their own favored assumptions or it is a serious attempt to persuade readers to imagine a better way to live together or it is both.
Some writers critique the very idea of utopia or planned communities in which everyone shares the same vision and goals. Rigidity, narrowness, conformity result, they insist.
The discerning reader must identify and assess the writer’s purpose and main claims as well as the supporting arguments as they are expressed through situations and characters’ actions and statements.
WHEN YOU READ THE ASSIGNED TEXTS, PUT NUMBERS IN MARGINS NEXT TO PASSAGES THAT DESCRIBE THE GOALS, STRATEGIES, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES, SPECIFIC OUTCOMES, AND PROBLEMS OR POSSIBLE PROBLEMS.
Essentially, we will be discussing these and other issues with each text.
Syllabus Agreement
I,__________________________, have read this syllabus.
I understand and accept the requirements and policies expressed therein.
Name (print) ___________________________________ Date:______________
Signature:_____________________________________
———————————————————————————————-
Release of Student Work
I, _______________________________, allow my written work or oral performance to be shared with other Butler faculty for pedagogical purposes.
I prefer my identity to be:
___protected
___shared
I, _____________________________, allow my written work or oral performance to be included in a scholarly publication.
I prefer my identify to be:
____protected
____shared
Signature:____________________________________ Date:______________
Print name:__________________________________________
Agreement about audio or videotaping
___I agree to allow myself to be audiotaped or videotaped as I participate in class or give presentations.
___I agree to allow videotapes of myself to be used in faculty pedagogy workshops.
___I prefer my identity to be protected by having my face blocked in an edited version of the videotape.
Name (print)____________________________________
Signature:_______________________________________ Date:_______________
Student Survey
Instructions: Please complete this survey, print it off, and turn in, folded in half, to your professor on the first day of class. Please do not write your name on this survey.
1. Check what best applies to your reading experience:
___I am a voracious reader. I can read several books a month outside of school.
___I read, without being assigned to, on a daily basis—the newspaper, a magazine, a novel.
___I enjoy a thriller/mystery/science fiction (popular) book every now and then but I do not enjoy assigned school reading.
___I find it hard to finish the books I was assigned to read in English classes.
___I hardly ever read the newspaper or a magazine article or a book on my own.
___I struggle with reading anything.
Other (if no statements adequately describe your experience):
2. In my senior English class:
How many books were you assigned to read? ______
Of these, how many were
Novels (works of fiction): _____
Nonfiction: ________
Other (please list): ___________________________
How many of the assigned books did you read all the way through?______
Was it clear to you that your teacher expected you to read each book?_____
Was it clear to you that most of your friends read each book?______
How many of the assigned books did you enjoy reading?_______
Please list one book title that you enjoyed: _________