Utopia and the Biopolitics of Race: Channel 4’s Utopia (2013-15).

This paper urges for further engagement with theories of biopolitics and biopower within the discipline of utopian studies. It concentrates on the ways in which theorizations of biopower expose the mechanics of utopian discourses, formations, practices, and texts. During modernity, utopianism demons...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Film Criticism Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 113 - 126
Autor principal: Mousoutzanis, Aris
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Film Criticism Sep2019
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This paper urges for further engagement with theories of biopolitics and biopower within the discipline of utopian studies. It concentrates on the ways in which theorizations of biopower expose the mechanics of utopian discourses, formations, practices, and texts. During modernity, utopianism demonstrated an increasing preoccupation with issues and concerns pertinent to biopolitical governance. The topos of utopia became less a territorial space and more a corporeal space, in a shift of focus within utopianism from outer space to inner space, from geopolitics to biopolitics. Such a shift renders biopolitical theory indispensable to utopian studies. The relations between utopianism and biopower are explored through a reading of Dennis Kelly’s TV series, Utopia (Channel 4, 2013-2015) and the focus is specifically on the ways in which representations of race in the series are determined by biopolitical discourses.