Imagine! How Dystopian and Utopian Stories Shape Our Future | Film and conversation with scholar of religion Seth Bledsoe and scholar of culture Christopher Cusack

Announcement

The future is open, and we get to shape it. But how do we do that? We need stories to imagine what the future could look like. Yet many films, books and other stories deal with dystopias – dark futures full of suffering. If we want to build a bright future, does it matter whether we imagine dystopias or utopias, the best worlds imaginable? Can utopian movies help us to imagine alternative futures, or do we overestimate how much our imagination can shape our future? Come and watch a Go Short film, and listen to scholar of religion Seth Bledsoe and scholar of culture Christopher Cusack about imagining alternative futures. 

Utopias and dystopias

1984, Children of Men, Bladerunner and Mad Max. These are just a few of the hundreds of movies about dystopian futures that turned into instant classics. Apparently, there is something about imagining horrific futures that attracts us as viewers. Movies about genuinely utopian futures are much more rare, yet can also have a deep impact on people’s imaginations. Black Panther and some instalments from the Star Track franchise come to mind. How do we use stories to create the world around us?  Why do we so often imagine horrible ends of the world as we know it? If we want our stories to help us imagine what the future could look like, wouldn’t it be better to imagine utopia’s instead of so many apocalyptic scenario’s? Or can watching the world end in so many different ways also be a way to explore how to do things differently?

Scholar of religion Seth Bledsoe and scholar of culture Christopher Cusack discuss how we build futures using stories. A short film from the Go Short Collection will be shown. Come listen, watch and ask your questions!

This program is in English.

About the speakers

Christopher Cusack is a scholar of culture at Radboud University. His work has focused on a variety of themes including the transatlantic cultural memory of famine,death in Irish and American literature and culture. He also has an interest and teaches about apocalypticism in (contemporary) literature and culture.

Seth Bledsoe is a scholar of religion at Radboud University. His research examines the literary and socio-historical character of ancient Jewish and Christian literature, with particular attention to wisdom and narrative traditions. Among many other topics, he also teaches on apocalypticism, religion and violence, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.