Kyle Sheehan

FYS 100 Section 50 – Social Utopias

Dr. Watts

September 14, 2015

Assignment: Explain what Bradshaw argues in his article and show the steps that he takes to explain his argument.

In his article, Bradshaw aims to dispute a well-known and respected analysis of Utopia. The original analysis that Bradshaw is targeting was written by a man named J.H. Hexter. Bradshaw refers to this analysis as “brilliant” and even praises Hexters status as a “scholar as interpreter of the political thought of the early modern period”. Bradshaw argues that “despite all the light which Hexter’s analysis throws on the text it is founded on an unsustainable hypothesis.” He respects Hexter’s analysis and the enormity of its effects on the literary world with regards to More and Utopia, however he disagrees with the fundamental idea on which it is founded.

Bradshaw points out that there are two problems or questions needed to be answered while attempting to interpret Utopia. These questions include “what does More here intend to describe and what is his purpose in describing it.” Bradshaw uses these questions as an introduction into his argument. He then goes on to explain the two main opposing interpretations. The first is that More presented Utopia to point out the “follies of Christian Society”. This interpretation holds that the Utopia was nothing more than an attempt to “heighten the reader’s perception of the real world”. The second interpretation claims that More’s Utopia is not restricted to only fantasy. Those that follow the second interpretation believe that Utopia was intended to be applied to real life.

Bradshaw uses these two opposing interpretations as the basis for his argument against Hexter’s analysis. Hexter’s interpretation points to More’s Utopia as a “Christian commonwealth, not a pagan one.” He argues this by claiming that “the criteria for a Christian society are moral rather than institutional.” Being that Utopia is intended to be socially and morally just, it therefor is a Christian society. However Utopia does have some practices that may not seem to fall under Christian ideals such as divorce and euthanasia. Bradshaw first begins his argument by analyzing the actual text of Hexter’s analysis. He then begins to discuss

counter arguments provided by other literary analysts. Bradshaw points out that the greatest opposition to Hexter’s analysis is provided by the work of a man named Dermot Fenlon. Bradshaw claims that Fenlon’s paper “served incidentally to entrench the interpretative framework established by Hexter.”  He then goes on to utilize Fenlon’s analysis, as well as his own interpretations to dispute the original thesis of Hexter.