Utopias and Dystopias. Images of Modernity from Spinoza to Christopher Nolan

Utopia has often been mocked because, in many of its versions, it has presented projects that are impossible to achieve. But the utopia represents the essence of modern thought in its quest for emancipation from political absolutism and for creation of a just society. Utopia, however, has taken on many forms – free and rational communities, urban projects based on equality, etc. – and even some reversals, as in technological dystopias. This complexity depends on the interpretation we give today to utopian desire: an open imagination of political action that looks to the future through the critics of the present, or the passive acceptance of contemporary society as a realized project of wellbeing? In the first case, utopia keeps alive the possibility of a better world; in the second, it affirms the certainty of an alienated and mechanized world. Through the analysis of some philosophical, literary and cinematographic works – from Shelley to Marx, Kerouac, Dylan and Herzog – the book emphasizes the importance of a utopian vision that outlines a project of political transformation and an alternative future of hope on environmental and social justice issues, thus escaping the tyranny of the digital capitalism and the ideology of consumption.