This edited work is spurred by the 30-year anniversary of the groundbreaking work by Paul Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (1986)-and the 40-year anniversary of the original lectures (1975). Ricoeur took these concepts that continue to be enormously important in social and political analysis and connected them in a uniquely intricate dance. The ensuing interplay of these concepts provides a framework for a more deft and subtle evaluation than is common. Little has been done to engage Ricoeur's skill in interpreting ideology and utopia or their creative tension, perhaps due to his significant contributions in other areas. When one combines Ricoeur's intricate analyses of ideology and utopia, however, with his contributions in other areas of philosophy such as hermeneutics, anthropology, embodiment, and philosophy of religion, one has fertile grounds for reflection in many directions. The essays in this book draw on these resources not only to engage the strengths and weaknesses of Ricoeur's original work, but they also expand his understanding in creative new directions such as the social imaginary, embodiment, gender theory, immigration, and extremist political rhetoric. The text will bring to the fore how this aspect of Ricoeur's work has significance for the wider twenty-first century political landscape. Just as his original work, this book provides much-needed resources for critique of each term, along with their relationship to one another, while recognizing the positive dimension of their function.
Introduction Part I: Re-Encountering Ricoeur 1. John Arthos - Ricoeur and the Political 2. Roger W. H. Savage - Surplus Value, Superabundance of Meaning: Ideology, the Political Paradox, and the Structure of Action 3. Dan R. Stiver - Renewing the "Period of Effervescence": Utopia as Ideology Critique Part II: Ricoeur in Dialogue 4. Recep Alpyagil - Metaphor and Imagination: A Comparative Study of Ricoeur and Ibn 'Arabi through "Seeing As" 5. Linda Lee Cox - 'Holding Open a Place for Possibility': Paul Ricoeur, Fredric Jameson, and the Language of Utopia Part III: Ricoeur and Embodied Social Critique 6. Nel van den Haak - Social Imagination, Materiality, and Political Discourse Introduction 7. Stephanie Arel - Embodied Extremist Rhetoric: The Circulation of Power in Ideology and Utopia Part IV: Expanding Ricoeur 8. Annalisa Caputo - Rethinking Migratory Phenomena: Between Critique of Ideology and Utopia of Hospitality 9. Greg S. Johnson - Real Utopian Politics 10. George H. Taylor - Why Ideology and Utopia Today? About the Contributors
