Utopian Landscapes

Detail from St Jerome after Giovanni Bellini, from the cover of Erewhon by Samuel Butler

An abiding interest of mine, and one which I am bringing into the classroom in the Fall 2002 semester in my Cultural Geography course, is in Utopian Landscapes. In that class, we will be reading Utopia by Thomas More, Erewhon by Samuel Butler, and Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. These three very different utopias will be discussed in class and hopefully will generate fresh ideas and perspectives concerning the possibilities of creating new forms on the landscape, which is the essence of Cultural Geography. I will be adding more to this page as the semester goes along.