Although published in 1986, Demand the Impossible was written from inside the oppositional political culture of the 1970s. Reading works by Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, Marge Piercy, and Samuel R. Delany as indicative texts in the intertext of utopian science fiction, Tom Moylan originated the concept of the «critical utopia» as both a periodizing and conceptual tool for capturing the creative and critical capabilities of the utopian imagination and utopian agency. This Ralahine Classics edition includes the original text along with a new essay by Moylan (on Aldous Huxley¿s Island) and a set of reflections on the book by leading utopian and science fiction scholars.

Tom Moylan is Glucksman Professor Emeritus in the School of Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication, Adjunct Professor in the School of Architecture, and Co-Director of the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies at the University of Limerick.
Raffaella Baccolini is Professor of American Literature and Gender at the University of Bologna at Forlì.

Contents: The Critical Utopia - The Utopian Imagination - The Literary Utopia -Joanna Russ, The Female Man - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed - Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time - Samuel R. Delany, Triton - «And we are here as on a darkling plain»: Reconsidering Utopia in Huxley's Island -Reflections on Demand the Impossible.