Visions and Representations of Desire

This book, by making a thorough analysis of the narrative strategies, ideology and cultural politics in five representative American utopian fictions, argues that the unique narration of American utopias is psychologizing outer tensions, which is manifested in different "visions" or "representations" of individual desire. As American utopian fiction often tells a social story through an individual psychologied language, the repression and satisfaction of "desire" becomes the axis of the whole narrative. This kind of "visions and representations of desire" is in accord with American Romance tradition defined by mainstream critics, and therefore reflects, to a great extent, a unique feature of American literature. As an original study of American utopian narratives, this book should be very useful to scholars in utopian studies.