Graduation Year
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.L.A.
Degree Name
Master of Liberal Arts (M.L.A.)
Degree Granting Department
Humanities
Major Professor
Andrew Berish, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Benjamin Goldberg, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Sara Dykins Callahan, Ph.D.
Keywords
Counterculture, Hope, Ernst Bloch, Decommodification, Radical SelfReliance
Abstract
Burning Man, a weeklong experience in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, has become an oasis for those looking to escape the corporatized grasp of modern culture. Burning Man serves as a reprieve from judgment and allows participants to embrace and perform their inner identities. The intensions of Burning Man have been widely debated, from scholars concentrating on the rejection of consumerism to analyzing sacred space and religious connectivity for festivalgoers. What deserves further analysis, however, is the utopian nature of the event. I will explore previous utopian attempts--literary, political, etc.--and define what characteristics from those societies were present during the inception and following early years of Burning Man. Using the work of Ernst Bloch I will establish Burning Man as a not-yet-conscious utopia, a product of Larry Harvey's vision, and define the increasingly imminent threats to the event's utopianism. The segregation of ideas at Burning Man, between veteran Burners and newcomers, is attributed to the perpetual struggle to balance and create meaning within a society designed to provide autonomy for its citizens. I will look at how changes in popularity and population have transformed the once utopian retreat into an amalgam of conflicting ethos. I argue that this once thriving counterculture is facing an extreme shift away from the original structure of the event in terms of meaning, experience, and understanding.
Scholar Commons Citation
Kovacik, Gracen Lila, "Tell Sir Thomas More We've Got Another Failed Attempt: Utopia and the Burning Man Project" (2015). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/5831
