NAVIGATION: Index of Dr. Weller's Class Materials Index of English 538 Materials

Utopia

Topics:

  1. The editors write that both Erasmus' The Praise of Folly and More's Utopia are "daring intellectual games that call into question the period's most cherished assumptions." What are some of those assumptions and why were they "cherished"?
  2. Explain and evaluate the views of Robert Shephard, in the article, "Utopia, Utopia's Neighbors, Utopia, and Europe."
  3. Explain and evaluate the views of Andrew D. Weiner, in the article, "Raphael's Eutopia and More's "Utopia": Christian Humanism and the Limits of Reason."
  4. Explain and evaluate the views of Merritt Y. Hughes, in the article, "Spenser and Utopia."
  5. On p. 604, footnote 2, it says, "Moral games of this general character were popular with Renaissance educators." —Find an example.

Random Notes:

Footnote #6 on p. 580 says, "Later in the 16th century, Holinshed's Chronicles recorded that 72,000 thieves and vagabonds were hanged in the reign of Henry VIII alone." According to my math that's more than five hangings a day, each and every day of Henry's reign from 21 April 1509 to 28 January 1547. englishhistory.net says that the population of England in in 1541, during Henry's reign, was 2.7 million. The current population of the State of Washington is 6.8 million. If the state of Washington hung people at the same rate as Henry VIII did, there would be 12.8 hangings each and every day.

The question of what to do about the innocent impoverished (such as widows or wounded veterans) is avoided by the account of the quarrel between the Friar and the fool (pp. 587-588).

On p. 600 we see this sentence: "As soon as they come out of the shell, the chicks recognize the humans, follow them around, and are devoted to them instead of their mothers." —??? Is there a point to this???