ABSTRACT
The structural ambiguity of utopia, its oscillation between 'no place' and 'the good place', is as pertinent in this theoretical tradition as elsewhere. The comparable fates of both gender and utopia in postmodernity show that resistance to formulation, to definition, to fixed boundaries is symptomatic of the postmodern condition. Ernst Bloch's work both anticipates and facilitates the transition from a modern to a postmodern conception of utopia. In the postmodern context, utopia is increasingly conceptualized as a motivating factor in the ongoing task of cultural criticism and change rather than as an achievable goal; utopian vision works as 'a necessary stimulus to socio-political transformation', or, in Fredric Jameson's words, a 'politically energizing perspective'. If postmodern utopianism is characterized by a shift towards openness, fallibilism, and intransitivity, this poses a challenge to Bloch's concluding utopian metaphor in The Principle of Hope, the metaphor of 'Heimat'.
