Utopia and colonisation

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Communications, Arts and Critical Enquiry, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

This Ph.D by Published Work consists of a collection of nine interlinked chapters on utopias and utopianism, each of which has already been published in an encyclopaedia, essay collection or journal in Europe, the United States or Australia in the period 2003-12. These chapters are preceded by an integrating and theorising introductory chapter which has not been published. Most chapters take the form of interdisciplinary survey essays identifying and analysing a number of primary texts in their sociopolitical and cultural history contexts. The chapters also identify and analyse a recurrent type of literary protagonist which I call the Little Man. A majority of texts originated in Britain and Northern Europe, or in the global South, between the middle of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. Since there are few publications devoted to the subject of Southern Hemisphere utopianism, texts and endeavours which either locate utopia in or near Australia or emanate from writers with connections to Australia and the global South receive considerable attention in these chapters. The thesis discussed in the introductory chapter is in two parts. First it asserts, on the basis of the content of the texts surveyed and selected events within the history of international population movements and gatherings, that occupation of land is of high importance in utopianism. Occupation of land may constitute a utopic moment in its own right even if not followed by colonisation. The second part of the thesis asserts that for an established utopia to survive it must, like capitalism, expand. Expansion may take various forms; the ones highlighted are colonising, commerce, and cultural construction. The theorist most frequently drawn on is Fredric Jameson. Others whose work influences the argument are Slavoj Žižek, Gilles Deleuze, Louis Marin, and Michel de Certeau.