Branded Communities: Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt and the Struggle for Utopia in the New Millennium

ABSTRACT:This paper examines the state of utopianism in the early years of the twenty-first century. Many of history’s most memorable utopias have represented compelling alternatives to the status quo. However, this paper draws on utopian scholarship to theorize a millennial utopianism that has been absorbed by the neoliberal, free-market status quo—especially the contemporary “innovation economy,” its corporate branding, and its “multicultural” marketing rhetoric— which has co-opted the language of past revolutionaries. This discussion takes place through the lens of Colson Whitehead’s novel Apex Hides the Hurt (2006), which critiques this pseudo-utopianism in favor of a more progressive alternative.