ENL 121: Introduction to Literature (Dr. Vavra)

Sir Thomas More's Utopia


Assignments are to the Norton Critical Edition, 2nd edition, 1975.


Assignment One:

    Adams, Robert M. "Preface to the Second Edition," vii-ix
    Chambers, R.W. "The Meaning of Utopia," 137-141.
    _____. "Utopia and the Problems of 1516," 142-147.
    Hexter. J. H. The Roots of Utopia and All Evil," 147-154.

Assignment Two:
    Utopia, Book One, 3 - 30
Assignment Three:
    Utopia, Book Two, 31-57

Assignment Four: 
    Utopia, Book Two, 57-85.

Assignment Five: (Preparation for in-class essay)
    One or more of the following:
    Elton, G. R. "The Real Thomas More?," 195-205
    Surtz, Edward L. "Humanism and Communism," 169-181
    Alistair Fox, "[An Intricate, Intimate Compromise]," 154-169
    Frye, Northrop, "Varieties ofLiterary Utopia," 205-211

JSTOR Articles on Sir Thomas More's Utopia

Adams, Robert P. "The Social Responsibilities of Science in Utopia, New Atlantis and after." Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 10, No. 3. (Jun., 1949), pp. 374-398. [JSTOR]

Allen, Peter R. "Utopia and European Humanism: The Function of the Prefatory Letters and Verses." Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 10. (1963), pp. 91-107. [JSTOR]

Bierman, Judah. "Science and Society in the New Atlantis and Other Renaissance Utopias." PMLA, Vol. 78, No. 5. (Dec., 1963), pp. 492-500. [JSTOR]

Binder, James. "More's Utopia in English: A Note on Translation." Modern Language Notes, Vol. 62, No. 6. (Jun., 1947), pp. 370-376. [JSTOR]

Bradshaw, Brendan. "More on Utopia." The Historical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Mar., 1981), pp. 1-27. [JSTOR]

Elliott, Robert C.  "The Shape of Utopia."  ELH, Vol. 30, No. 4. (Dec., 1963), pp. 317-334. [JSTOR]

Engeman, Thomas S. "Hythloday's Utopia and More's England: an Interpretation of Thomas More's Utopia." The Journal of Politics, Vol. 44, No. 1. (Feb., 1982), pp. 131-149. [JSTOR]

Hammond, Eugene R. "Nature-Reason-Justice in Utopia and Gulliver's Travels." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 22, No. 3, Restoration and Eighteenth Century. (Summer, 1982), pp. 445-468. [JSTOR]

Heiserman, A. R.  "Satire in the Utopia."  PMLA, Vol. 78, No. 3. (Jun., 1963), pp. 163-174. [JSTOR]

Hexter, J. H. "Intention, Words, and Meaning: The Case of More's Utopia." New Literary History, Vol. 6, No. 3, History and Criticism: II. (Spring, 1975), pp. 529-541. [JSTOR]

_____.  "The Loom of Language and the Fabric of Imperatives: The Case of Il Principe and Utopia." The American Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 4. (Jul., 1964), pp. 945-968. [JSTOR]

Holquist, Michael. "How to Play Utopia." Yale French Studies, No. 41, Game, Play, Literature. (1968), pp. 106-123. [JSTOR]  NOTE: This article contains high-quality images.

Hutchinson, Steven. "Mapping Utopias." Modern Philology, Vol. 85, No. 2. (Nov., 1987), pp. 170-185. [JSTOR]

Jameson, Fredric. "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture (in Mass Culture)." Social Text, No. 1. (Winter, 1979), pp. 130-148. [JSTOR]

Kendrick, Christopher. "More's Utopia and Uneven Development (in Humanism and the Literary Text)." boundary 2, Vol. 13, No. 2/3, On Humanism and the University II: The Institutions of Humanism. (Winter - Spring, 1985), pp. 233-266. [JSTOR]

Kinney, Arthur F. "Rhetoric as Poetic: Humanist Fiction in the Renaissance." ELH, Vol. 43, No. 4. (Winter, 1976), pp. 413-443. [JSTOR]

McCutcheon, Elizabeth. "Thomas More, Raphael Hythlodaeus, and the Angel Raphael." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 9, No. 1, The English Renaissance. (Winter, 1969), pp. 21-38. [JSTOR]

Miles, Leland. "The Literary Artistry of Thomas More: The Dialogue of Comfort"  Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 6, No. 1, The English Renaissance. (Winter, 1966), pp. 7-33. [JSTOR]

_____.  "The Platonic Source of Utopia's `Minimum Religion'." Renaissance News, Vol. 9, No. 2. (Summer, 1956), pp. 83-90. [JSTOR]

Nagel, Alan F. "Lies and the Limitable Inane: Contradiction in More's Utopia." Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 2. (Summer, 1973), pp. 173-180. [JSTOR]

Nendza, James. "Religion and Republicanism in More's Utopia." The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Jun., 1984), pp.195-211. [JSTOR]

Ong, Walter J. "Recent Studies in the English Renaissance." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 4, No. 1, The English Renaissance. (Winter, 1964), pp. 163-194. [JSTOR]

Perlette, John M. "Of Sites and Parasites: The Centrality of the Marginal Anecdote in book 1 of More's Utopia."  ELH, Vol. 54, No. 2. (Summer, 1987), pp. 231-252. [JSTOR]

Pineas, Rainer. "Thomas More's `Utopia' and Protestant Polemics." Renaissance News, Vol. 17, No. 3. (Autumn, 1964), pp. 197-201. [JSTOR]

Raitiere, Martin N. "More's Utopia and The City of God." Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 20. (1973), pp. 144-168. [JSTOR]

Romm, James. "More's Strategy of Naming in the Utopia." Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2. (Summer, 1991), pp. 173-183. [JSTOR]

Sanderlin, George. "The Meaning of Thomas More's "Utopia"." College English, Vol. 12, No. 2. (Nov., 1950), pp. 74-77. [JSTOR]

Sayre, Robert F. "American Myths of Utopia (in A Phalanx from the Left)." College English, Vol. 31, No. 6. (Mar., 1970), pp. 613-623. [JSTOR]

Shephard, Robert. "Utopia, Utopia's Neighbors, Utopia, and Europe." Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4. (Winter, 1995), pp. 843-856. [JSTOR]

Stevens, Richard G. "The New Republic in More's Utopia." Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Sep., 1969), pp. 387-411. [JSTOR]

Surtz, Edward L. "Epicurus in Utopia." ELH, Vol. 16, No. 2. (Jun., 1949), pp. 89-103. [JSTOR]

_____. "The Link Between Pleasure and Communism in Utopia."  Modern Language Notes, Vol. 70, No. 2. (Feb., 1955), pp. 90-93. [JSTOR]

_____. "Thomas More and Communism."  PMLA, Vol. 64, No. 3. (Jun., 1949), pp. 549-564. [JSTOR]

Thomas, W. K. "The Underside of Utopias." College English, Vol. 38, No. 4. (Dec., 1976), pp. 356-372. [JSTOR] NOTE: This article contains high-quality images.

Tinkler, John F. "Praise and Advice: Rhetorical Approaches in More's Utopia and Machiavelli's the Prince." Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2. (Summer, 1988), pp.187-207. [JSTOR]

White, Thomas I. "Aristotle and Utopia." Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 4. (Winter, 1976), pp. 635-675. [JSTOR]

Wooden, Warren W. "Anti-Scholastic Satire in Sir Thomas More's Utopia." Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, Humanism in the Early Sixteenth Century. (Jul., 1977), pp. 29-45. [JSTOR]