Cards (11)

  • People who struggle through bad realities create utopian visions that reflect the anxieties of their time
  • During difficult times like war, utopian dream literature is needed to escape tragic reality
  • Reality triggers the creation of a utopia
  • Human suffering and harsh social conditions lead to utopian dreams as a universal theme
  • Utopian dreams are part of the collective unconscious
  • If the world were perfect, no utopian dreams would be created
  • Examples of utopian dreams in literature:
    • "Lord of the Flies": Jack's utopian vision turned into a dystopia for others
    • "Of Mice and Men": Striving for the American dream, a utopia for privileged Caucasian people
    • "Animal Farm": Reflects anxieties of the Russian Revolution
    • "Pleasantville": Living in a dystopian American society, seeking perfection in a television program
    • "Fahrenheit 451": Burning books to create a utopia leads to a dystopia
  • Revolutionary Imagery - Spring Mode:
    • Quest for an ideal (love, society, spirituality)
    • Return to nature (fields, orchards, earth)
    • Search for truth, beauty, goodness
    • Search for a better world (equality, fraternity, liberty)
    • Rebirth, revival, resurrection
    • Defeat of the powers of darkness
    • Birth of the hero
  • Examples of Spring Mode:
    • "Bambi": Connected with nature, flowers, animals
    • Comic vision of the animal world: birds, owls, deer, rabbits, butterflies
    • Comic vision of the vegetable world: alive trees
    • Painting of Mao Zedong: symbolizes heroism, harmony, and nature, comic vision of human world
    • Painting of Vladimir Lenin: community feeling, care for children, springtime, comic vision
  • Oscar Wilde:
    • "A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at, for it leaks out the country in which Humanity is always landing"
  • Human suffering + harsh social conditions = utopian dreams as a universal theme