An analysis of concepts of space in the Renaissance period through an examination of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Thomas More's "Utopia".
Written in 2006; 6,694 words; 16 sources; APA; $ 152.95
Paper Summary:
This paper examines Renaissance art and also the works of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Thomas More's "Utopia" in terms of the times that they were set and in relation to the art of that period and the concept of space. It centers upon the idea of spatial awareness and how it can be related not just to art but also the social and political aspect of it.
From the Paper:
"This idea of the 'citizen-soldier' indicates that spatial arrangements not only demarcate and produce but actually validify political territory. It is this sense of political territory that is important to discussion of The Tempest, for just as Utopia is defined as political territory and placed in the New World, so critical debate on The Tempest recently has centred on the colonial aspects of the play. The parallels between Utopia and The Tempest are essential here. Both Utopia and Shakespeare's island have the quality of imaginative space. Utopia in its intense, almost symmetrical geography (see p.69) and the island in its obviously magical, theatrical qualities both suggest at this. Furthermore, both these imaginary islands retain idealistic qualities. This is obviously the main thrust of Utopia, or at least the second book of that text, and specific instances of such qualities punctuate The Tempest: references to the 'Golden Age' (II,i,172); Caliban's description of the 'Sounds, and sweet airs' of the island (see III,ii, 137-44); Gonzalo's insistence 'How lush and lusty the grass looks! How green!' (II,i, 55). Critical debate has also pointed up the Utopian scenario in varying ways, reading The Tempest as a form of pastoral romance and indexing specific parallels with the Utopian discourses found in Renaissance humanism such as More's. However, it is specifically in the combination of the idea of idealistic space with the idea of imaginative space that this paper is concerned. In its distinct, imaginary, spatialised Utopianism, The Tempest reveals the literal placing in the term locus amoenus - the siting (locus) inherent in Utopian fantasy, and the political importance of such a siting."
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