12/30/2023 0 Comments Escape from la utopiaIt is indeed plainly visible in the opposition of judgments that, either critically reject certain political programs or visions of the future as “utopian”, or explain that there can be no genuine emancipatory politics without an essential component of “utopian conversion” (in the words of Miguel Abensour). Perhaps it was already there in the moment of its invention, in the name of the imaginary island harbouring a “perfect” society, that was described by Thomas More in his book from 1516 (the same year as Machiavelli’s The Prince, often presented as its polar opposite, but that Gramsci called a “revolutionary utopian manifesto”). This ambivalence or dilemma lies at the heart of many uses of the word/category “utopia”. I was attracted towards the Deleuzian formulation by the very ambivalence of the French expression, that “escape” indicates better than “flight”. In fact, the translators hesitated, and there is a note at the beginning of the English edition of A Thousand plateaus. Some of you will have recognized a Deleuzian terminology, but perhaps you wonder why I transform the standard translation of Deleuze’s “ligne de fuite” from “line of flight” into “line of escape”. Harcourt, September 28 th, 2022Īllow me to begin with a quick explanation of my title. Introductory Lecture for Utopia 13/13, “A History of the Future,” 13 Seminars at Columbia, 2022-2023, directed by Bernard E. Étienne Balibar Uncovering lines of escape: towards a concept of concrete utopia in the age of catastrophes.
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