The Importance of Utopia as Good-Place/No-Place in Drama Education

• In Event: Multimodal Arts Education: Virtuality, Fiction, Drama, and Utopia in Educational Research

Abstract

What might we in drama/theatre education gain from drawing upon utopian studies to enhance the ongoing theorization of what we do? This essay investigates key concepts from philosopher Fredric Jameson’s (2005) Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. Jameson’s study of the utopian form in literature and film will be examined in dialogical relation to contemporary drama/theatre education practices, such as; Australian drama education scholars’ concept of drama as social dreaming (Sinclair, Donelan, Bird, O’Toole & Freebody, 2009), Jonothan Neelands' work on socially-committed pedagogy, ensemble and democracy (Neelands, 2009a, 2009b; O'Connor, 2010), Cecily O’Neill’s process drama (1995), and Dorothy Heathcote's Mantle of the Expert approach to education (Heathcote & Herbert, 1985; Heathcote & Bolton, 1995).

Author

• Monica M. Prendergast, University of Victoria