European Journal of English Language, Linguistics and Literature
Vol. 5 No. 1, 2018 ISSN 2059-2027
THE INTERTEXTUAL READING OF THOMAS MORE’S UTOPIA AND JONATHAN SWIFT’S GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: FROM UTOPIA TO DYSTOPIA Mrs.Nawal KECHIDA Blida University ALGERIA
ABSTRACT More and more criticism is interested in the utopian travel mode of writing because of the popularity it is gaining. This art is rediscovered in new modern forms such as: science fiction dystopias, anti utopian space odysseys and apocalyptic dystopias, these neological genres of utopia are flourishing in arts. Thomas More’s Utopia (1535) is considered as the founding text of the utopian travel literature and it is often read as a pretext deeply inspiring dystopian texts written after. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is regarded as the first significant dystopian travel narrative directly inspired by Thomas More’s Utopia. This inspiration and influence was openly recognized by Jonathon Swift himself and widely investigated by critics. This article analyses this relationship between Thomas More’s Utopia and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver. The many studies done on this issue have generally examined this relationship through thematic comparative studies conducted in terms of similarities and differences between the two texts. However, the study below has attempted to go beyond mere thematic comparison and traces the genetic link between the two narratives. In other terms, the extent to which Gulliver owes to Utopia has been examined in relation to the generic link between the utopian and the dystopian modes of writing. This has been done through an intertextual reading of the two texts, where similarities and differences are reconsidered from the assumption that Utopia and Gulliver belong genetically to the same literary genre. Tracing the intertextual link between the two utopian travel texts from this perspective reveals that Gulliver relies on the dynamics of the utopian literary genre as established by More in Utopia, and make it undergo reformulations, readaptations and reshapings contributing by that in the cloning of dystopia as a new literary genre genetically deriving from utopia. Keywords: Gulliver’s Travels, Utopia, Utopia, Dystopia, Intertextuality. INTRODUCTION A utopia is often defined as an ideal or perfect world or state. In literature the term is used to describe visionary texts of political or social perfection. These are generally detailed descriptions of a nation or a world functioning according to social, political, economic and religious codes which the narrator sees as being better than the ones exiting in reality. There is a clear desire for a better world, hence a clear dissatisfaction with an actual one. This is the core of Thomas More's travel narrative Utopia in which the word utopia and the concept it implies were defined for the first time. This text marked the beginning of a long tradition of a utopian travel literature and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is an example. When considering Swift’s Gulliver within the utopian tradition, critics find it quite natural that Gulliver is a text that is to be read against More’s Utopia. This is so for some pertinent reasons, the first major one is that More is considered as one of the founders of the utopian Progressive Academic Publishing, UK
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