Utopia as a Dubious Vision: A Study of Thomas More's Utopia

• Main Authors: Yi-ling Lin, 林宜玲
• Other Authors: Hui-chuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/11126418844682578958

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 90 === Utopia is habitually equated with an ideal social blueprint. Nevertheless, this equation is problematic. As a seminal text of the utopian genre, Thomas More's Utopia already exemplifies features which drastically destabilize the ideal image of utopia. Besides thematic equivocation, narrative strategies such as the multi-framed structure and unreliable narrators further problematize the illusion of the perfect stasis of Utopia. This thesis first conducts a survey of recent studies of utopia with a view to pinpointing the elusive nature of utopia. Then it proceeds to examine Utopia as an open-ended text in terms of both its thematic and narrative aspect. It is hoped that, through this study, the dynamic feature of More's Utopia may be brought into focus.