Our starting points are to think of why it is significant to study these texts & how they might relate to concerns of today 

As you read consider and make notes on the following:

1. How does More's Utopia relate to its historical and cultural contexts? Why does it take this form rather than logical argument? 
2. If you are familiar with it, how does More's Utopia differ from the 18th/19th Century novel and why? 
3. How might More's Utopia lay out the ground for future fictional developments?  (The Tempest, and later texts on the module as an examples --- part of the point of the module is to return to this question)
4. Think about how it offers alternatives for the following key concerns of the state

(i)   Private property (ii)  Money  (iii) Defence (iv) Competition for resources with neighbouring states  (v) Composition and governance of the family unit (vi) Control of the population and town planning (vii) the role and purpose of Justice

Also  consider 

(i)   Private life

(ii)  Individual expression/desire

(iii) The Arts in all their forms

(iv)  Philosophy and Science

Post notes on the forum. 

 

Support your reading of the main text by listening to the Grisham College lecture on Thomas More's Utopia  

(you may wish to listen to one of the others) 

Read: Engeman, Thomas S., ‘Hythloday's Utopia and More's England: an Interpretation of Thomas More's Utopia’, The Journal of Politics, 1 February 1982, Vol.44(1), pp.131-149