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Review Article Contemporary Scholarship on Utopianism Lyman Tower Sargent O VER THE PAST DECADE research on utopianism has grown rapidly, and there are now a number of professional associations devoted to the study of utopianism. The Society for Utopian Studies held its latest meeting in October 1994 in Toronto, and its twenti­ eth anniversary 1995 meeting will be again in Toronto. The Society publishes a biannual journal, Utopian Studies, with about 250 pages in each issue; a newsletter, Utopus Discovered', and a Directory o f Utopian Scholars (the most recent version of which was published in Utopian Studies).1It also co-sponsors with the Communal Studies Association a book series on Utopianism and Communitarianism published by Syra­ cuse University Press. In Europe, the Utopian Studies Society o f the United Kingdom, chaired by Ruth Levitas, meets regularly and publishes a “ Newsletter.” The Associazione Internazionale per gli Studi sulle Utopie, centered in Rome and under the leadership of Giuseppa Saccaro Del Buffa, has held meetings every three years for the past twelve years, publishes a newsletter entitled Notizie A.I.S.U., and has published the proceedings from two of the conferences, with the third and fourth in press. Also in Italy, the Centro Interdipartimentale di Recerca sull’Utopia, under the leadership of Vita Fortunati at the Université degli Studi Bologna, holds a major conference every year, sponsors a continu­ ing series of lectures and smaller conferences, and has published some books based on the conferences. The Gruppo di Recerca sull’Utopia at the Université di Lecce, under the leadership of Arrigo Colombo, has held a number of conferences and has published a series of books on various aspects of utopianism. A European utopian studies society is also under discussion. Related professional associations are the Science Fiction Research Association, the Communal Studies Association (formerly the National Historic Communal Societies Association) and the International Com­ munal Studies Association. The first two hold annual meetings, and the third holds triennial meetings with the next scheduled for May/June of 1995 in Israel. VOL. XXXIV, No. 4 123 L ’E spr it C réa te u r In addition to Utopian Studies, the major outlets for article-length research on utopianism are Communal Societies (the annual publication of the Communal Studies Association), and three journals primarily devoted to the scholarly study of science fiction, Extrapolation and Science-Fiction Studies in the United States, and Foundation in the United Kingdom. The range of these scholarly activities suggests that utopianism is now thought of as a subject with a variety of sub-fields. In the past, most scholars saw utopianism as concerned solely with the literary genre created by Thomas More and its progenitors and successors. This is still generally true in the United States where, although a broadening of inter­ ests is detectable, the focus of scholarship has been on authors and texts. The rest of the world seems to take a wider view of the subject. While that literary genre remains the core of the field, the inclusion of inten­ tional or communal societies (once known as utopian societies), repre­ sents an attempt to bring under one rubric all of what I have called “ social dreaming.” Thus, definitional concerns are at the center of the burgeoning inter­ national network of scholars. Following earlier work by Darko Suvin and myself,2recent collective and individual treatments of the field are bringing new perspectives to our understanding of the subject. The important three-volume collection edited by Wilhelm Vosskamp, and the recent one-volume collection edited by Nadia Minerva represent attempts to illustrate the range of material that comes under the word utopian.3 Ruth Levitas’ recent book, The Concept o f Utopia (1990),4is the most extensive effort by a single scholar to explore the definition of utopia. One interesting approach to the understanding of the concept of utopia that does not seem to be very well known is found in Lucian Holscher’s essay “ Utopie.” 5 This approach, known as “ Begriffsgeschichte” or “ history of concepts,” is only now influencing Anglo-American thinking and has not reached utopian scholarship yet. For earlier and alternate approaches, see the work of J. C. Davis, Renato Poggioli, Paul...

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