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"Writing Utopias to Resist the Environmental Status Quo"

Page history last edited by ellisl@... 5 years, 4 months ago


Essential questions for discussion:

 

  • Dystopian narratives circulate freely among young adults.  What are we missing by not asking students to cultivate utopian visions of a sustainable future society & economy?  

 

  • Writers of utopian narrative face two challenges. First, utopias are boring because characters face no conflicts.  Second, utopias have flaws that develop into dystopias.  In what ways might these two problems with utopian narratives complement and negate other--providing genuine conflict to resolve? 

 

  • What can we learn about our students, their understandings of climate change and sustainability, their understandings of political agency and theory, and their understandings of narrative by asking them to write utopian visions of a sustainable society?  

 

I asked students to synthesize and apply what they had learned in a semester-long Introduction to Sustainability class (Environmental Studies 201) by writing a utopian narrative--living a day in a sustainable future.  This is was a hand written narrative on the final exam.  

 

Student example for analysis:

 

Utopian narrative student sample - NCTE Ellis.PDF

 

Professional example for analysis:

 

Shawn Hendricks, Founder/Director of the Blue Sphere Foundation, has struggled to construct an effective rhetorical message to support policy-level change on a global, national, and local level, and execute campaigns to shift unsustainable consumption habits.  Images and stories of oceanic beauty was ineffective.  Images and stories of oceanic destruction was ineffective.  A utopian vision threatened by the status quo momentum has proven the most persuasive message:

 

https://vimeo.com/257585056

 

 

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