Early
A Bibliography of Thomas More's Utopia
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://purl.oclc.org/emls/01-2/lakomore.html>.

Introduction

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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.

  6. 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.)

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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

  10. 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]

Proceed to the Utopia Bibliography.

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.

[http://asgard.humn.arts.ualberta.ca/emls/EMLS footer.html]

(RGS, rev. 14 February 1998)