Utopia, memory and indeterminacy. Transitions from tradition to innovation

Abstract

The essay explores creative processes, emphasizing heterodox imagination, the notion of utopia, and the metaphor of movement. If, as Ernst Bloch put it, thinking means venturing beyond, in a way that does not keep under or skates over what already exists, theory here is adopted to grasp the link between thought and movement. The study of utopia reveals how socially embedded actors historically understand the present, offering an engaging perspective akin to a history of the present, where positively valued traits emerge in a given semiosphere. Bloch’s premise is reiterated: the realm of possibilities is the chief constraint in devising thought, especially the utopian sort.