I. Lecture outline
A. Book II--written first--a medieval work
1. medieval ideal; unified controlled teleological world
a. comparisons with Dante
I. Raphael--name of angel who communicates God's plan to Adam-- as pilgrim voyager and prophet
II. Utopia is City of Man vs. City of God--Augustine
III. monastic order; symmetry; rigorous discipline; power of priesthoods
IV. A Heavenly Republic designed around Justice, Temperance, Courage and Wisdom, the four cardinal virtues--model of Plato and Aristotle.
V. A Purgatorial place where avarice and the other deadly sins--sloth, lust, envy, rage, pride, gluttony--are eradicated
A. Eliminate the essential sin: pride
1. individuality of city, history, family, self, clothing is eradicated
2. no Utopian is given a name
3. no individuation through love, privacy or inwardness
4. no family inheritance or existence apart from state
5. pleasure is goal but severely limited
6. constant surveillance
VI. enemies and mercenaries treated like sinners in Inferno and scriptures--The Dark Side
2. Christian utopia of X in the gospels;
a. socialist message of the gospels and early church: all things in common
I. liberation theology; monastic ideal
b. the book is a way of shaming Europe:they're not even Christians, but so much more humane than we are
c. last passage about rich and poor--pp. 129-130
d. Plan for social reform: Taken literally as a model by later communist and socialist writers--Kautsky, other "Utopian socialists"; society of Red Guards
B. Book I--written later--a renaissance work
1. A Humanist text--exemplifies humanism
a. literary and rhetorical activity--liberal arts
b. Book paraphernalia discovered in FQ, DQ
c. Classical writers and the bible read differently in renaissance than middle ages. More attention to literary and rhetorical structure, complexities, frames, ironies, differing responses. Less straightforward.
d. Imitation of Republic--constantly referrred to along with Plato throughout Utopia
I. itself not only a Utopia and heuristic construction of society to understand the concept of justice, but placed within actual framework of lively, witty and and funny discussion and debate among actual Athenians.
II. Idealistic vs. sophistic; question not so much of the just society but what is the way for an enlightened man to act
III. Discussion among Glaucus, Thrasymachus, Socrates, etc. Semifictional, joking, sophisticated and ironic
IV. lines by mr. windbag--contest with Plato--this is real; his wasnt; paradox of the lie [Plato's rejection of fiction in the Republic, which would exclude his own work]--philosophy embedded in life
V. distancing of views--the discussion represented as remembered at second or third remove--like More's memory of Raphael's account of the dinnertime conversation at Cardinal Mortons
e. Written in Latin largely for a community of scholars, more as a diversion than a straightforward didactic effort to arrive at the truth or convert or revolutionize society.
I. ironic or questionable sections of Part II--darkening as we head toward war and religion; less rational and enlightened; more Infernal aggression [against enemies and mercenaries] and irrationalism; humor--golden toilets
II. part of a dialogue--the apparatus and the wit of it
III. among letter writers; parody of travel lit
IV. More appears not as Dante the pilgrim--in his own person, but as a questioner; a challenger; a sceptic--though More is also Raphael
V. ending is not beatific vision but open question; multiple viewpoints and attitudes; tolerance and tentativeness rather than dogmatism
A. utramque partem
B. ambiguous perspective
VI. Raphael or Nonsenso as his name indicates--is wise fool; praise of folly; encomium Moreae; Erasmus
f. Delight in language; wit; playfulness; allusion--contemporary and classical; name dropping; reference to friends; density; tongue in cheek; conscious lying and fictionalizing
I. prefatory material; published with the work
A. the Utopian Alphabet
1. Renaissance philology; the recovery, reproduction, editing of mss. and turning them into standard printed texts; bookishness
a. fascination with languages; Renaissance discoveries of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Assyrian, Egyptian, MesoAmerican artifacts, mss. texts
b. phonology, morphology, semantics
2. experimentation with ideas of universal language; understanding of linguistics; linguists and polymaths; codes
B. the poem
1. expression of tolerance
C. letter to Gilles 29: sprezzatura; improvised on spur of moment
D. quibbling over details of bridge dimension; 31. complaints about critics and readers
E. Gilles'letter to Busleiden 33., participating in the hoax of the reality of Raphael, along with More explaining the reason why utopia hasn't yet been discovered saying what a great writer More is.
2. Humanism and scholarship
a. writers refer to themselves as fine scholars 37.
b. on scholarship;
I. readers, critics, clever writers, excellent students--pleasures and virtues of scholarship--the liberal arts;
II. like Dante and the inhabitants of limbo; arrogance and fame--25.,33. glories of the age
c. enjoyment of correspondance and conversation
d. discussion in garden on turf; limbo like groves of Academe; campus
e. characterization of Raphael
I. a scholar interested in Greek and Cicero
II. an explorer with Vespucci; totally intrepid like Dante's Ulysses; through the pillars of Hercules
III. everybody talking about Vespucci's voyages--the New world
3. Humanism and politics
a. humanist function as diplomat, educator and counsellor
I. More and Peter: R's knowledge could be of great use to king and humanity; theory of king as fountain raining benefits on the population
II. diplomatic trade mission; agent of Henry VIII; making treaties; negotiations
III. educators for princes--Aristotle and Alexander model
IV. Mirror for magistrates; the Courtier; the Governor; Machiavelli's The Prince;
V. More and Henry the VIII; Erasmus and Charles V
A. Gr. 17: "Eras a dissatisfied monk, impatient with confinement; More a dissatisfied layman, impatienet with liberty"
b. The "Christian Humanist" social reformers position: Erasmus, More, Linacre, Colet
I. Erasmus' teachings of the "Philosophy of Christ." Picture of Erasmus
II. Ethical, detached and informed opinions; corrections, moral viewpoint, long range perspective; liberal, humane outlook contra Machiavelli
c. Raphael's Issues in Book I
I. Justice
A. Dialogue over crime and punishment--Lawyer vs. Raphael. Is crime the responsibility of the criminal or society
1. thieves are being hung everywhere and crime rate goes up not down [prison construction in CA]
2. Raphael's liberal approach: too severe, no deterrent, bad teaching like caning of schoolboys; instead provide thieves with a means of livelihood
a. Education and social reform rather than crime and punishment--Humanist creed, vs. fire and brimstone
b. Extend opportunities
c. they choose to be criminals
d. Wounded veterans not able to find jobs
3. critique of the rich
a. they're extravagent and bleed their tenants
b. excessive retainers for lords, then become unemployed without trades;
4. thieves are unemployed soldiers--too much militarization
a. thieves make good soldiers; soldiers make good theives
b. standing armies kept around, leaving too many soldiers; kings start wars to keep soldiers in practise
5. Arguments against capital punishment for thieving [cf. three strikes you're out 50]--behavioral monitoring]
a. not fair according to law of Moses/ sisth commandment
b. dangerous for public, since it encourages murder of witness or victim
6. Alternative punishments
a. in Tallstoria, theif has to pay back what he stole to victim with supervised hard labor but no imprisonment--becomes a slave [classical model]
b. hired out to private enterprise; wears special clothing
c. infractions of the restrictions is capital crime 52 [capital punishment thrus returns]
II. Economics
A. Sheep and enclosures create poverty and crime: the grapes of wrath
1. "sheep have become man-eaters..."
2. great description of enclosures: transformation of medieval structure to renaissance manors; family farms into industrial ag.
3. peasants forced off the land and onto the roads and into cities
4. wool market is oligopoly; wool to expensive for independent weavers, so they are unemployed
5. greedy people conspire to push up the price of livestock, throwing people off
6. "In other words, you create thieves and then punish them for stealing."
B. Raphael: eliminate private property --as at end of Book II
III. War
A. Raphael would advocate not pursuing foreign policy goals at all and just withdrawing. A peaceful foreign policy has no chance--Erasmian irony and satire. 42, 59. My pictures.
d. the problem of the humanists role: Raphael vs. Morus
I. Raphael
A. an outsider vs. More as insider--another side of More; also a fiction vs. the "real" More
B. kings wont listen; attack on kings and politicians for not being more innovative
1. they're just interested in war [what about utopians?]
2. privy counsellors dont want to look at innovative alternative solutions; hooked on their own vested interests
3. argues from Xtian viewpoint--cant adapt Xtian ethics to human behavior 64
a. compromise corrupts; participation merely is justification and complicity; fitting in is required in the political arena or you lose your head
b. no point in politics as long as there's an unequal distribution of wealth
c. abolish private property is only solution.
4. interest of sovereign should coincide with people's, not be against them. [Ross Perot]
5. Happiland's laws to limit the wealth of the government--cf. campaign finance reform; interest of politics over interest of state
II. More's opposing "realist stance"
A. art of the possible
B. you have to play the game; take part in the play; you cant be playing a different game
C. you cant change people whole hog
D. the "real" man survives by participating in a fiction
4. Morus and More
a. theatricalization of public life in HVIII society--mummery, staggering opulence
I. slide of Henry; quote greenblatt 29
II. vast ego and desire for self display
b. Career rise
I. More loved to take part in playacting; his own self-reflexiveness, self-estrangement; "protean adaptability"
II. More's ability to survive by playacting: Greenbl. "the survival rate for those closest to Henry VIII rough resembles the actuarial record of the First5 Politburo.
A. early 1490--page in household of Morton
B. four decades of of law diplomacy parliamentary politics, and courthsip
C. Lord Chancellor--highest Office in the realm
D. Pressure of Henry's divorce-- tried to retire
III. More [Gr. 55] loved the fame which U. brought him and reports in a letter to Erasmus upon accepting the royal appointment he was offered in 1516, while working on Book I, a dream he has of being not a nameless Utopian citizen, but king utopus himself.
A. "in my daydreams I have been marked out by my Utopians to be their king forever; I can see msyelf now marching along, crowned with a diadem of wheat, very striking in my Franciscan frock, carrying a handful of wheat as my sacred sceptre, thronged by a distinguished retinue of Amautotians, and with this huge entourage giving audience to foreign ambassadors and sovereigns."
IV. Holbein portrait--wearing the gold chain, like one of the Flatulentine ambassadors; underneath is the hair shirt of Raphael
V. More's personal monkishness--lived in a charterhouse four years; wore the hair shirt; enjoyment of imprisonment
5. Raphael and More
a. Uncompromising; wont play the game of "The Man for All Seasons"--goes to the Tower for the vision of the single body of the church
I. His persecution and torture of protestants--Tyndale
II. Refusal to sign the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging King as head of Church
6. how does the issue of private property and Utopia fit at the climax of the debate between More and Raphael [ Gr. 36ff.]
a. Hexter says its just stitched in there to make transition
b. communism is response not only to social problems but to the existential problem of role playing
c. private property is the expression of ego; no place for ego in utopia; wealth is ego
d. says accommodation to fictions is tatamount to telling lies G 36
e. Utopia a punishment for his own vanity; Final return to role of Raphael