Volume 1, Number 2 (August 1995)
Romuald Ian Lakowski
usercong@mtsg.ubc.ca
Lakowski, R. I. "A Bibliography of Thomas More's Utopia." Early Modern
Literary Studies 1.2 (1995): 6.1-10 <URL:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/emls/01-2/lakomore.html>.
Copyright (c) 1995 by the author, all rights reserved. Volume 1.2 as a whole is copyright
(c) 1995 by Early Modern Literary Studies, all rights reserved, and may be
used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law.
Archiving and redistribution for profit, or republication of this text in any medium,
requires the consent of the author and the Editor of EMLS.
Introduction
- This Utopia bibliography is organised topically into two major subdivisions, ten major
sections and about sixty subtopics or subsections.[1] The first major
division deals with modern Editions and Translations, and the second with background
scholarship (Studies in Utopia) published in the last hundred years (from about 1890
onwards), mainly in English and French. There is also a significant body of modern More
scholarship in other languages, especially German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, but
it is beyond my current scope to include much of this scholarship in this bibliography.
- In addition, many of the items include the locations of one or more summaries and/or reviews
in their annotation "fields" (in [] brackets). A number of items have been entered into the
bibliography in more than one subsection, with one of the entries being abbreviated with
a hypertext link to the main reference.
Summary of Contents of Utopia Bibliography
- The Table of Contents contains a detailed list of all the
major and minor topics and subsections with hypertext links to each topic or subsection. The
Table of Abbreviations (located in a separate file) includes standard abbreviations for
literary, historical, philosophical and other journals. It also includes abbreviations for some
conference proceedings, such as the various Neo-Latin conferences (Acta Conventus
Neo-Latini) and some books, e.g. Quincentennial Essays and Essential
Articles.
I. Editions and Translations
- The first section Editions, Concordances and Bibliographies (I.a) lists modern
editions of the Latin text of Utopia (including the Yale edition), reviews of the Yale
edition, concordances, bibliographies, etc. The section on Translations of Utopia (I.b)
deals with modern translations of Utopia, including: a selection of the modern editions of
Robynson's 1551 translation, all the modern English translations of Utopia, and some of
the modern translations into French, Spanish, German and other languages.
II. Studies of Utopia
- The first section of background studies General Studies (II.a) lists general studies of
Utopia (mainly in book form). The next section Genre, Composition, Parerga, Book I
and Conclusion (II.b): deals with studies relating to the composition, structure and the
historical background of Utopia, including: Genre and Interpretation; More's Utopian
Embassy of 1515; the Prefatory Letters and Parerga; the Dialogue of Counsel (Book I) and its
16th Historical Background; Raphael Hythloday as Narrator (Book II); and the Conclusion
of Utopia.
- The next section Literary Studies (II.c) groups together literary topics, including:
Dialogue, Dialectic and Drama; Rhetoric, Fiction and Poetics; Irony, Paradox, Humour and
Satire; Latin Style; Utopian Language and Names; Utopian Chickens, Gold and Chamber
Pots. The following section Geography in Utopia (II.d) deals with questions of
historical geography, the geography of the imagination and urban planning: Arcadia, Enclosed
Gardens, Cities, Order and Nature; Geography and Maps. (See also the subsection Spain,
New Spain and America in Utopia Through the Ages.)
- The next section Humanism, Ethics, Philosophy and Religion (IIe) encompasses
studies of intellectual history, moral and political philosophy, humanism, utopian religion and
theology, including: Pleasure and Moral Philosophy; War and Peace; Social and
Political Philosophy; Utopian Communism, Law, and Property; Humanism and Education;
Religion and Theology; Suicide and Death; Marriage, Divorce and Feminism. Classical
and Medieval Sources and Analogues (II.f) describes possible classical and medieval
sources and parallels, including: Plato and Aristotle; Plutarch and Lucian; Cicero, Seneca and
St. Augustine; Homer, Herodotus and Tacitus, etc.
- Utopia Through the Ages (II.g) deals with the historical influence of Utopia
in the Renaissance and afterwards, including: Erasmus and Vives; Bacon and Campanella;
Castiglione and Sidney; Machiavelli, Seyssel and Bodin; Elyot, Milton, and Shakespeare;
Rabelais, Montaigne and Swift; Bartolomé de Las Casas and Vasco de Quiroga. It
also includes a variety of assorted topics on: the influence of Utopia in Spain, New Spain and
America; Utopia in the 16th to 19th Centuries and Some Modern Utopian Novels; Utopia in
General Studies of Utopian Literature; General Essays on More's Utopia; and Utopia in Eastern
Europe.
- The section Marxism and Literary Theory (II.h) deals with Socialist and Marxist
interpretations of Utopia and Literary Theory. Unclassified Articles and
Dissertations: is a miscellaneous section with a few unclassified theses and articles in
German. The Index of Names contains an Index Nominum with hypertext links to
individual bibliographic items.
Other Bibliographies
- In compiling this bibliography, I have consulted a number of earlier general bibliographies of
More scholarship, including the two surveys of "Recent Studies in More" by J. P. Jones and A. J.
Geritz in the English Literary Renaissance 9 (1979): 442--58 and 22 (1992): 112--40; and
Frank Sullivan's checklist Moreana, 1478--1945 (Kansas City, Rockhurst College,
1946).[2]
Notes
1. This bibliography of Sir Thomas More's Utopia
represents a substantial revision (about 50% more) of the Utopia section
of my "Thomas More Bibliography" (~2,000 items), which appeared as an
appendix in my Ph.D. thesis "Sir Thomas More and the Art of Dialogue"
(University of British Columbia, 1993).
2. Every attempt has been made to make the current Utopia Bibliography
as self-contained as possible, but besides the items listed here, many of the other items included in
my thesis bibliography are directly relevant to the study of More's Utopia, especially the
subsections on general bibliographies of More scholarship and on the Translations of
Lucian in the major division on Studies of More's Individual Works (which included
an earlier version of the present Utopia bibliography). In the major division on
General Background Studies and Biographies, the following topics or subsections are
especially relevant: Law and Politics (excluding More's Trial); General Studies of More's
Works; Literary Dialogue; Humour and Wit; and More and Humanism. In addition,
almost all the biographies in the sections Modern Biographies and Brief
Biographies make at least passing reference to More's Utopia.
Responses to this piece intended for the Readers' Forum may be sent to the Editor at EMLS@arts.ubc.ca.
Return to EMLS 1.2 Table of Contents.
[RGS; August 30, 1995.]