The junior seminar will focus on utopian thinking, social practices and expressive arts in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America: philosophy, literature and art; social experiments; urban planing; science; education; and recent historical and theoretical work in American Studies, much of which displays a decidedly utopian bent. Since most reforming and idealizing visions develop from a heightened sense of what is wrong with American society, we will analyze and interpret dystopian views as well. These will include recent art, architecture and film in which an almost saccharine representation of American life is revealed to be a meditation upon the impossibility of hope. Enrollment limited to Junior American Studies majors and to those American Studies majors who need to take this course because they will be or have been away during their Junior year. Expected enrollment: 16.