Platonic influence on utopian literature: Republic and T. More`s Utopia (16 th cen.), J. Swift`s Gulliver`s Travels (book IV) (18 th cen.), A. Huxley`s Brave New World (early 20 th cen.)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The thoughts, hopes and dreams of mankind shape the history and civilization. In Utopian Literature, writers and philosophers extend these human aspirations to fictional ideal states, making these writings an excellent reflection of their philosophies, social and political ideals, and literary expressions of the particular eras. In the tradition of Western Utopian Literature Plato and his opus Republic stand colossal and have inspired innumerable works. Developing a comparative study, this thesis examines the parallelism in both technical and thematic aspects among the Republic and More's Utopia as an example of 16th Century, Book IV in Swift's Gulliver's Travels of 18th Century and Huxley's Brave New World as of early 20th Century. In the first part, a general view on the Utopian thought and literature is presented with a critical approach to past and recent understandings of principle of hope and satire in the tradition. The dominance of hope for a better future and the satire aspect are displayed behind the themes of Utopias. A definition of `utopia` with an ethimological background, and accordingly, the outline and history of Utopia as a genre are asserted. The last chapter in the first part expresses the Utopian slope in Republic particularly. In the second part, utopianism in Republic is analysed with a close perspective on the caste system, Plato's Justice and Virtue, the super philosopher-king, the individual - state affiliation, the theory of education, totalitarianism and stability of the ideal state conceived throughout RerüMe. Part three realizes the particular comparative processes theme by theme in detail. Each individual work is handled through the prisms of criteria that have been employed on the analysis of Republic. The coinciding and opposing points are determined with specific examples and references. The last part is the conclusion and comments further on Utopian views addressing to our contemporary period called often modernity and post-modernity. It also comprises otheroffers for attainment of a better future for all humanity modified with the global peace and ultimate happiness.