Abstract

The dissertation examines the intersections between pragmatist philosophy and utopian literature. By emphasizing the value of an open and uncertain future, the major American pragmatists, William James and John Dewey, suggest a new way of thinking about the concept of utopia. Instead of the conventional view of utopia as an ideal blueprint for a perfect world, utopia can be reconceived as a process of imagining alternatives to the status quo. Utopia can be thought of more as an activity than as a thing. Utopia, conceived pragmatically, becomes a critique of ends, as well as a means of bringing new ends into view. Pragmatism and utopianism converge in American literature in Dewey's notion that "the United States are not yet made." The dissertation examines the pragmatist-utopian thought of Edward Bellamy, Charles S. Peirce, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and W. E. B. Du Bois, in their attempts to reconstruct American national identity by telling stories about what the nation has been and should try to become. I examine the way these writers critically engage a pragmatic faith in an American future by envisioning utopias that criticize American social practices and revise the American ideal of democracy