Microutopias and Everyday Hope

This edited volume brings together an interdisciplinary selection of contributors who draw on a range of scholarly traditions to explore the potential that resides in utopian thinking on smaller scales in media, from music, to film and television, to literature, among other venues. The reflections resulting from these analyses engage in a conversation that steers our attention to the details of aesthetics that are increasingly being drowned out in a world dominated by constant and multiple crises. The book posits, however, that attention to detail in the everyday and in less spectacular venues will be more necessary than ever if we hope to imagine alternative futures in a different and better way. Given the relentless and dystopian march toward the abyss that is characteristic of late stage capitalism, any kind of future is currently predicated on some form of utopian thinking. As scholars demonstrate both theoretically and methodologically how hope persists in cultural and aesthetic expressions that can not only be detected, but can be taught, learned, and adapted in service of creating alternative social and aesthetic imaginaries on a larger scale. Ultimately, this collection highlights the crucial importance of the humanities in order to withstand and even move past the contemporary societal fragmentation being experienced globally. Scholars of media, cultural, and future studies will find this book to be of particular interest.