From “Elsewhere” to “No Place（Non-lieu）”

Utopia in the Late Thoughts of Zygmunt Bauman

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the idea of Utopia and “Retrotopia” in Zygmunt Bauman’s late thoughts and reveal its significance in the realm of critical social theory, through a reinterpretation of the meanings of “past” and “future.” Bauman related Utopia to “the future that never comes” and “Retrotopia” to nostalgia floating around contemporary society. In previous research, the future argued by Bauman has predominantly been comprehended as a proactive attitude toward social change, with some influence from Antonio Gramsci or Karl Manheim. These studies share the premise that usual understandings and socially shared symbolic meanings about time could encompass what Bauman calls “past” and “future.”

Bauman’s descriptions, however, point to a radically different direction in which the identification of “I” is a central matter to be considered in relation to time. Bauman identifies Utopia, or “the future that never comes,” in relation to the duality of the self that enables the self to take responsibility for the Other, referring to Emmanuel Levinasʟ idea of “the self” that vacates oneself. Bauman’s critics of narcissism among his thoughts regarding “Retrotopia,” is grounded by the above idea of Utopia. This prevents social theory from an overreliance on witness testimony regarding contemporary social issues regarding identity and interpret such social phenomena from the perspective of the brutal ambivalence of identification.