Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature: A Commons Poetics

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Featuring readings of contemporary utopian poetry and fiction from authors such as Juliana Spahr, Mohsin Hamid, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lidia Yukavitch, and Cory Doctorow, this book investigates the commons - a form of organisation based on collectivity, communalism and sharing - as a type of transition between capitalist precarity and crisis and anti-capitalist futures. Each of the texts under examination was written in opposition to a particular crisis of the capitalist present - inequality, political representation, mobility, and climate change - and develops a particular mode of utopian 'commoning'. Through its examination of these writers, crises and texts, this book reaffirms the use of utopianism as a tool for generating and representing alternative futures for a world in the midst of ongoing planetary crisis.

Reviews

Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature makes a brilliant case for the importance of the utopian imagination in literature and social movements. In readings of contemporary authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, Juliana Spahr, and Mohsin Hamid, Raphael Kabo shows that the dream of a better society isnt a luxury but a necessity. -- Christian P. Haines, Associate Professor, Penn State University, USA

Author Bio

Dr Raphael Kabo is an independent researcher investigating cultural production in, and adjacent to, contemporary global activist movements. He is a co-founder of the anarchist close reading collective 'Beyond Gender' and the research network 'Utopian Acts'.