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- Title
L'utopie impossible Jonath Swift et les Houyhnhnms.
- Authors
BRAGA, CORIN
- Abstract
After the Council of Trent, all Christian authors, from Joseph Hall (Mundus alter et idem, 1605) to Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels, 1726), adopted the critical position of the Church with regard to utopias. These authors saw utopias as heresies, as they described exotic human races untarnished by the original sin and which therefore did not need redemption through Jesus Christ and the Church. The present paper demonstrates that, in Gulliver's Travels, despite the admiration felt by the protagonist towards some of the lands he visited, the countries in question are all anti-utopias. The most terrifying example is that of the wise horses, by means of which Swift created not a utopia of reason, but rather a monstrous anti-utopia, in which the beast rises above the human race and humankind is reduced to beastliness. All of Gulliver's voyages can be seen as following the mental regression of the character, suggesting the involution of humankind itself.
- Subjects
CHRISTIAN authors; HALL, Joseph, 1574-1656; SWIFT, Jonathan, 1667-1745; CHURCH; UTOPIAS; REDEMPTION in Christianity; JESUS Christ; ORIGINAL sin; HUMAN beings; HOUYHNHNMS (Fictional characters)
- Publication
Transylvanian Review, 2011, Vol 20, Issue 2, p105
- ISSN
1221-1249
- Publication type
Article