week 6

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Get out your Alquin magazine

Put away your phone

Put your bag on the floor

Utopia

Sir Thomas More 

1478-1535

Thomas More’s “Utopia”

• Lawyer, sheriff, statesman
  
• Friend of Erasmus
  
• 1516 publishes Utopia
  
• A story about travel to an ideal society
  
• Not the first but the definition of the genre
  
• A commentary on society
  

• .....
• .....
• Eutopia
  
• Topos = place
  
• Eu = good
  
• “the perfect society” →

• ....
• ....
  
• Outopia
  
• Topos = place
  
• Ou = not
  
• “does not exist”/“nowhere”
  

A Meaningful pun

Recognizable

A utopia cannot be completely different from our society, it must resemble it, and appear to be a progression from or alternative version of our current society.

Homework

page 13

Questions 1- 4- 5- 6

Advantages

 a sort of compulsory community service, of the kind that is often suggested nowadays.

Society based on reason. With ideas such as free education, all roles open to everyone, a classless

society and religious tolerance, More was way ahead of his time. 

Disadvantages

very communist and strictly organised. There is no room for individuality.

You have no say in where you are sent. Also, you cannot leave the island; you have to stay there. There is no

recreation: no social drinking, no theatre or suchlike. It all reflects More’s way of life, which consists

only of eating, working and sleeping.

More was against private ownership, since he felt it was the root of all social evils.

 Ironically, he was

himself very rich. However, he had a lot of sympathy for people at the lower levels of society, who

had to deal with the impact of Henry’s policies.

Iron is of practical value. It is a hard metal that you can use to make tools and many other

useful objects.

Gold and silver are soft metals; they are merely decorative because of their shiny

appearance. People value gold and silver because they are rare, but one can argue that they are only

valuable because people choose to value them; they have no inherent value. 

The availability of clean air and water is nowadays a topical issue, with all the environmental

pollution and the attempts to clean up the world around us.