Gazing in Useless Wonder

Contents: Thomas More's De optimo reipublicae statu deque noua insula Vtopia and the Emergence of Utopian Fictions - The Margins of Utopia - Utopian Spaces and Places - Utopian Institutions, Utopian People - Dystopian/Negative Worlds: The Paradigm Reversed.

Artur Blaim is Professor of English Literature at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin and the University of Gdansk. His books include Early English Utopian Fiction (1984), The English Robinsonade of the Eighteenth Century (1990) and Aesthetic Objects and Blueprints: English Utopias of the Enlightenment (1997), as well as Imperfect Worlds and Dystopian Narratives in Contemporary Cinema (2011) and Spectres of Utopia: Theory, Practice, Conventions (co-edited with Ludmila Gruszewska-Blaim, 2012).

«Artur Blaim's 'Gazing in Useless Wonder' is absolutely essential reading for anyone trying to understand this period and its utopian texts. This book is important because it includes discussion of many neglected texts such as 'Siuqila' (1580), 'The Capacity and Extent of Human Understanding ' (1745), 'The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman' (1778), 'The Admirable Travels of Messieurs Thomas Jenkins and David Lowellin Through the Unknown Tracts of Africa' (1783), and 'A True and Faithful Account of Veritas ' (1790) as well as the better known texts. Blaim's treatment of these early texts is the most systematic analysis available of the ways in which utopian narratives are structured and carry their message.» (Lyman Tower Sargent, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, author of 'Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction '(2010))
«This is the most detailed, original and sophisticated study of early modern and eighteenth-century British literary utopias to be published in many years, and offers an excellent introduction to a large number of texts and traditions, as well as the methodological and theoretical debates surrounding their interpretation.» (Gregory Claeys, Professor of History at Royal Holloway, University of London, editor of 'The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature '(2010))