Politics of the (Im)Possible

Barnita Bagchi is faculty in Literary Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She was previously a faculty member at Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), India. She is an Executive Committee Member of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE). Her published books include Pliable Pupils and Suffi cient Self-Directors: Narratives of Female Education by Five British Women Writers, 1778–1814 (2004); Webs of History: Information, Communication, and Technology from Early to Post-Colonial India (co-edited with A.K. Bagchi and D. Sinha, 2005); and a critical edition and part translation, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag: Two Feminist Utopias.

• Introduction - Barnita Bagchi PART ONE: UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA: DEBATES AND RESONANCES Utopia: Future and/or Alterity? - Miguel AbensourEcho of an Impossible Return: An Essay Concerning Fredric Jameson′s Utopian Thought and Gathering and Hunting Social Relations - Peter KulchyskiRadicalism in Early Modern England: Innovation or Reformation? - Rachel FoxleyDystopia, Utopia, and Akhtaruzzaman Elias′s Novel Khowabnam - Subhoranjan DasguptaPalestine: Land of Utopias - Sonia Dayan-HerzbrunPART TWO: ENGENDERING UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA ′One Darling though Terrific Theme′: Anna Wheeler and the Rights of Women - Theresa MoriartyA Parliament of Women: Dystopia in Nineteenth-century Bengali Imagination - Samita Sen′Empire Builder′: A Utopian Alternative to Citizenship for Early 20th Century British ′Ladies′ - Martine SpenskyLadylands and Sacrificial Holes: Utopias and Dystopias in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain′s Writings - Barnita BagchiUtopia in the Subjunctive Mood: Bessie Head′s When Rain Clouds Gather - Modhumita RoyPART THREE: CONCLUSION Globalization, Development and Resistance of Utopian Dreams to the Praxis of Dystopian Utopia - Marie-Claire Caloz-TschoppIndex

The book presents an in-depth philosophical account of why ′utopia has been the mother of exact sciences. Writings of different thinkers on utopia and dystopia display a rather complex interplay between the actual and the possible, dream and reality and ideal or the monstrous communities. A must read