Utopia and the Problem of Race: Accounting for the Remainder in the Imagination of the 1970s Utopian Subject.

Edward K. Chan, Kennesaw State University

Abstract

The article critiques several American utopian novels and texts that have a specific reference to the issue of racial difference. Among these are Dorothy Bryant's "The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You" which was originally published as "The Comforter," Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time" and Samuel Delany's "Triton." According to the article, while all three novels are somewhat constrained by the essentially anti-utopian idea of liberal democracy, they nonetheless achieve the function of utopian narrative to show the boundary of the historical present and a possible vision for the future. Also discussed in the article are Tom Moylan's "Demand the Impossible," Jennifer Burwell's "Notes on Nowhere," and "Time" magazine's special November 1993 issue on "The New Face of America."