Abstract
The paper presents an analysis of the significance of association of Thomas More’s Utopia with the Early Modern travel writing and the possible implications of this association for the interpretation of the highly controversial text. Utopia is here approached from the point of view of literary analysis, with reference to some of the theories proposed by modern scholarship. The main objective, however, is to investigate the likely impact of the adoption of the travel narrative convention for the perception of the text by the contemporary audience, which may make it possible to discover some of the author’s assumptions regarding the responses that the text was supposed to evoke in the implied readers. Since the notion of foreignness inherent in travel accounts may be associated with distance and estrangement as well as fascination, the approach remains consistent with the recognition on highly complex and equivocal character of Utopia.
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Grądziel, O. (2013). Early Modern Travel Writing and Thomas More’s Utopia: An Attempt at Literary Interpretation. In: Fabiszak, J., Urbaniak-Rybicka, E., Wolski, B. (eds) Crossroads in Literature and Culture. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21994-8_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21994-8_36
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