Sean Seeger
Biographic Data
| ID | 310185 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sean Seeger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sean |
| FAMILY NAME | Seeger |
| SIGNATURE | SEEGER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Dystopian Literature and Classical Social Theory
This article considers what might be learnt from revisiting classical social theory in the context of contemporary utopian studies. More specifically, it returns to the early twentieth century and to the work of Max Weber in order to consider how Weber’s profound reflections on the themes of asceticism, religion, human excellence, and science might be used to reframe and reevaluate a classic dystopian text whose concerns can be seen to overlap wi…
Speculative Queerness
This article explores how David Cronenberg’s outwardly dystopian science fiction film Crimes of the Future (2022) can be interpreted as an implicitly utopian queer text. After surveying some of the main trends among critical responses to the film, a reading of its queer cinematic, thematic, and narrative elements is developed, with a specific focus on the film’s treatment of non-normative bodies, genders, and sexualities. Drawing on the work of E…
The Postcritical Utopia
Taking Yanis Varoufakis’s novel Another Now as a case study, this article introduces and makes an argument for a new concept in utopian studies: the postcritical utopia. It begins by making four claims: (1) that Varoufakis has written a utopian socialist novel; (2) that this represents a retrieval of a historical form of literature; (3) that the utopia at its center takes the form of a utopian blueprint; and (4) that two objections to this utopia…
Ursula Le Guin's Speculative Anthropology
This article argues that Ursula Le Guin's science fiction is a form of 'speculative anthropology' that reconciles thick description and historicity. Like Clifford Geertz's ethnographic writings, Le Guin's science fiction utilises thick description to place the reader within unfamiliar social worlds rendered with extraordinary phenomenological fluency. At the same time, by incorporating social antagonisms, cultural contestation, and historical con…
Dystopian literature and the sociological imagination
This article argues that sociologists have much to gain from a fuller engagement with dystopian literature. This is because (i) the speculation in dystopian literature tends to be more grounded in empirical social reality than in the case of utopian literature, and (ii) the literary conventions of the dystopia more readily illustrate the relationship between the inner life of the individual and the greater whole of social-historical reality. Thes…
Martin Amis, neo-Orientalism, and hubris
This article puts forward a reading of Martin Amis’s 2008 book The Second Plane with an emphasis on its cultural politics. With these factors in mind, the essay argues that it is possible to detect in Amis’s book early warning signs of how the West’s relationship with both Islamism and Islam would develop in the period following its publication. Drawing on William Connolly’s work on tragedy and Edward Said’s work on Orientalism, the essay argues …
Dystopian literature and the sociological imagination
This article argues that sociologists have much to gain from a fuller engagement with dystopian literature. This is because (i) the speculation in dystopian literature tends to be more grounded in empirical social reality than in the case of utopian literature, and (ii) the literary conventions of the dystopia more readily illustrate the relationship between the inner life of the individual and the greater whole of social-historical reality. Thes…
Ursula Le Guin's Speculative Anthropology
This article argues that Ursula Le Guin's science fiction is a form of 'speculative anthropology' that reconciles thick description and historicity. Like Clifford Geertz's ethnographic writings, Le Guin's science fiction utilises thick description to place the reader within unfamiliar social worlds rendered with extraordinary phenomenological fluency. At the same time, by incorporating social antagonisms, cultural contestation, and historical con…
The Postcritical Utopia
Taking Yanis Varoufakis’s novel Another Now as a case study, this article introduces and makes an argument for a new concept in utopian studies: the postcritical utopia. It begins by making four claims: (1) that Varoufakis has written a utopian socialist novel; (2) that this represents a retrieval of a historical form of literature; (3) that the utopia at its center takes the form of a utopian blueprint; and (4) that two objections to this utopia…
Martin Amis, neo-Orientalism, and hubris
This article puts forward a reading of Martin Amis’s 2008 book The Second Plane with an emphasis on its cultural politics. With these factors in mind, the essay argues that it is possible to detect in Amis’s book early warning signs of how the West’s relationship with both Islamism and Islam would develop in the period following its publication. Drawing on William Connolly’s work on tragedy and Edward Said’s work on Orientalism, the essay argues …
Dystopian literature and the sociological imagination
This article argues that sociologists have much to gain from a fuller engagement with dystopian literature. This is because (i) the speculation in dystopian literature tends to be more grounded in empirical social reality than in the case of utopian literature, and (ii) the literary conventions of the dystopia more readily illustrate the relationship between the inner life of the individual and the greater whole of social-historical reality. Thes…
The Postcritical Utopia
Taking Yanis Varoufakis’s novel Another Now as a case study, this article introduces and makes an argument for a new concept in utopian studies: the postcritical utopia. It begins by making four claims: (1) that Varoufakis has written a utopian socialist novel; (2) that this represents a retrieval of a historical form of literature; (3) that the utopia at its center takes the form of a utopian blueprint; and (4) that two objections to this utopia…
Ursula Le Guin's Speculative Anthropology
This article argues that Ursula Le Guin's science fiction is a form of 'speculative anthropology' that reconciles thick description and historicity. Like Clifford Geertz's ethnographic writings, Le Guin's science fiction utilises thick description to place the reader within unfamiliar social worlds rendered with extraordinary phenomenological fluency. At the same time, by incorporating social antagonisms, cultural contestation, and historical con…
Speculative Queerness
This article explores how David Cronenberg’s outwardly dystopian science fiction film Crimes of the Future (2022) can be interpreted as an implicitly utopian queer text. After surveying some of the main trends among critical responses to the film, a reading of its queer cinematic, thematic, and narrative elements is developed, with a specific focus on the film’s treatment of non-normative bodies, genders, and sexualities. Drawing on the work of E…
Dystopian Literature and Classical Social Theory
This article considers what might be learnt from revisiting classical social theory in the context of contemporary utopian studies. More specifically, it returns to the early twentieth century and to the work of Max Weber in order to consider how Weber’s profound reflections on the themes of asceticism, religion, human excellence, and science might be used to reframe and reevaluate a classic dystopian text whose concerns can be seen to overlap wi…
Sociology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis (3 works) · History (3 works) · Dystopia (2 works) · Law (2 works) · Literature (2 works) · Philosophy (2 works)