Eutopia unbound. Imagining good places in narratives from 1945 to the present

Start - End 
2009 - 2016 (completed)
Type 
Department(s) 
Department of Literary Studies
Other institution(s) 
Department of Architecture and Urbanism
Research group(s) 

Tabgroup

Abstract

'Eutopia Unbound' investigates the narrative construction of 'good places' in the late-modern era. The research uncovers four types of eutopias (the oasis, the capsule, the hub, and the bazaar) that continue to recur in our late-modern culture, in general, and in the projections of architects and urban planners, in particular.

A definition of 'eutopia' is developed starting from Foucault's notion of 'heterotopia' and Cassirer's theory of 'mythical thinking.' Mikhail Bakhtin's 'chronotope' is developed as a tool of analysis for 'cultural narratology' (NĂ¼nning).

People

Supervisor(s)

External(s)

Pieter Uyttenhove

Department of Architecture and Urbanism - Ghent University