Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies
an interdisciplinary research centre at The University of Sheffield
In this post, Prof Phil Withington looks at the description of Amaurot, the capital city of Utopia. He explores how it relates to London and English structures of governance, and asks what it tells us about Thomas More’s conception of Continue reading Blogging Utopia (6): Governing Utopia
After the dialogue of Book 1 of More’s Utopia, we come to the discourse of Book 2, in which Hythloday relates his impressions of Utopia. In this fifth post, Chloë Houston explores the opening of Book 2 and the way Continue reading Blogging Utopia (5): Arriving in Utopia
In this post, Cathy Shrank looks at one of the most memorable passages of More’s Utopia: Hythloday’s attack on the contemporary practice of enclosing land for sheep-farming and his analysis of its far-reaching effects.
Utopia is best-known for its description of More’s imaginary island. That only comes in Book 2, however. Book 1 prepares the reader for Hythloday’s account of his ideal land by discussing some of the social, economic and political problems that Continue reading Blogging Utopia (3): The Dialogue of Counsel
In this second post for the Utopia 2016 series, Cathy Shrank looks at the paratext of More’s Utopia, and the art of blending fact with fiction. Like many sixteenth-century texts, More’s Utopia comes with various bits of ancillary material that Continue reading Blogging Utopia: (2) paratext
Welcome to the first of our 500th-anniversary posts on Thomas More’s Utopia. The series, curated by Utopia-scholar Cathy Shrank, will run throughout 2016. We begin with a close look at the book’s opening: a letter from More to his friend Continue reading Introducing Utopia: More’s Letter to Giles