The Renaissance through texts and objects: Thomas More’s Utopia

A traveller returns from the New World with astonishing stories about a land where there is no poverty, no war or unemployment, no private property, and where education and health care are free and universal. He concludes this land offers the solution to many of the problems plaguing England in the 16^th century. The only problem is that he never clarifies where exactly this land is. By the way, his surname is Hythloday (conveyor of nonsense) and the land’s name is Utopia (no-place).

Thus goes one of the most perceptive and disturbing products of the English Renaissance, Utopia, written by Thomas More in 1516. A mixture of political treatise, moral discourse, prose fiction, autobiography and travel story, Utopia takes us on a dizzying discussion of society, power and freedom.

450 years after its first edition some of Utopia’s questions seem more pressing than ever: How self-serving are politicians? What are the limits of individual freedom? How acceptable is social inequality? Is a more egalitarian society viable? What should be the limits of power? What is an ideal world and how far from it is our real world?

STUDY DETAILS

• Four session virtual study facilitated by Vivien Kogut
• Tuesdays, 5.30-7.30pm (UK time), starting 18 October
• £120, including opening notes and resources