Profs. C. Pierre, J. Holley, and M. Williams

This learning community links ENG 12 (5P, 15976) with ART 34 (3P, 16595) and SD10 (9P, 18085), and will examine several texts (print as well as visual and cinematographic) which consider the nature of dystopian societies, the utopian ideals that typically give birth to them, and the factors that inevitably lead to their erosion. In English 12, the primary text will be Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell. In English 12, students will additionally view the Kurt Wimmer film Equilibrium as well as examples selected from episodic television including the Star Trek series: The Next Generation, The Original Series, Voyager, Enterprise, and Charmed. In Art 34, students will study and analyze images of idealized utopias imagined by artists, such as Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good Government in the City and the Country (1338-1339); Shen Zhou’s Poet on a Mountain Top (Ming Dynasty, c. 1500); Raphael’s The School of Athens (1510—11); Poussin’s Et In Arcadia Ego (1637-38); and Watteau’s Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera (1717).