Utopian Variations

Acknowledgements

This book is indebted to many people, not all of whom can be adequately acknowledged here. The first and foremost of these is my frequent academic collaborator, Daniel Davison-Vecchione. Dan has been an inspirational interlocuter and a major spur to my thinking about all things speculative over the last decade, not least during the writing of our various jointly authored articles on literature and social theory. I consider myself extremely lucky not only to have benefited from Dan’s unique insights, but to be able to call him a friend.

The book has benefited significantly from the many conversations I had with scholars at the 22nd Utopian Studies Conference at the University of Brighton in July 2022. In particular, I wish to thank the following people for invaluable comments, questions, and criticisms, both during and since the conference: Heather Alberro, Emrah Atasoy, Joe Davidson, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Michael Larson, Frank Lopes, and Katie Stone.

I wish to thank Matthew Leggatt and Liam Knight for generously inviting me to discuss some of my ideas for this book on their podcast, Utopian and Dystopian Fictions, in November 2024. It was a very enjoyable experience, the results of which can be streamed on Spotify and other platforms.

My thanks to everyone in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex who has helped to foster the ideal environment in which to write this book, especially Matthew De Abaitua, Josh Ang, Sanja Bahun, Lizzie Bennett, Chris Bundock, Shohini Chaudhuri, Katharine Cockin, Jon Crane, Sue Dawes, Cristina Fumagalli, Kate Gilmour, Sue Hogan, Liam Jarvis, Emma Kittle, Liz Kuti, Annecy Lax, Ed Lee, Jonathan Lichtenstein, Karin Littau, Mary Mazzilli, Emma McClelland, Lilly-Ann Newman, Dan O’Brien, Susan Oliver, Jak Peake, Owen Robinson, Tom Robinson, Joanna Rzepa, Penny Simpson, Sarah Smyth, Comhnall Speed, Holly Pester, Phil Terry, Antonio Vivas, Jonathan White, and Nora Williams.

Beyond Essex, thanks are due to the following people for the many productive conversations I have had with them about utopia, dystopia, and everything in between: Jake Abenson, Chidinma Achebe, Zoe Adonis, Mahnaz Ahangarani, Ash Bailey, Sophia van den Berghe, Brent Garcia, Miriam Jackson, Reuben Martens, Giovanni O’Flaherty, Dayo Ogunkoya, Irina Sadovina, Adam Stock, Immanuel Torres, Hamish Turtledove, Andries Van Dijk, and Yoshida Hisamoto.

Elements of some chapters were previously presented at conferences or seminars at the following institutions. Chapter 1: Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, University of California, Davis (2019). Chapter 2: Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick (2023). Chapter 4: Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London (2016). Chapter 5: London Science Fiction Research Community, Birkbeck, University of London (2019). Chapter 6: Utopian Studies Society, University of Brighton (2022). My thanks to the organisers of these events for giving me the opportunity to gather some crucial feedback on my evolving ideas.

Chapter 5 is a revised version of an essay that originally appeared under the title ‘“Whatever comes after human progress”: Transhumanism, Antihumanism, and the Absence of Queer Ecology in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan’ in the collection Age and Ageing in Contemporary Speculative and Science Fiction, edited by Sarah Falcus and Maricel Oró-Piqueras and published by Bloomsbury (Seeger 2023b). My thanks to Bloomsbury for granting permission for the reuse of this material.

Chapter 6 is a revised and expanded version of an article that originally appeared under the same title in the journal Utopian Studies in 2023, under the editorship of Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, Stephanie Peebles Tavera, A. Elisabeth Reichel, and Manuel Sousa Oliveira (Seeger 2023a). My thanks to Pennsylvania State University Press for granting permission for the reuse of this material.

This book is being made available via open access through the University of Essex’s institutional open access fund. My sincere thanks to the University of Essex and its Library and Cultural Services team, especially Open Access Fund Co-ordinator Sean Andersson.

At Ralahine, I’d like to thank the anonymous Commissioning Editor who closely read and commented on the full manuscript. At Peter Lang, my thanks go to Senior Acquisitions Editor Tony Mason, whose help and encouragement throughout the publication process are much appreciated.

Lastly, I wish to thank my family for their support and encouragement throughout the process of writing this book. Thank you, Jackie, Tony, Elle, and Dylan – I couldn’t have done it without you!