근대 유럽의 ‘섬-유토피아’ 문학과 시민적 사회이상 (1) - 고중세의 섬-이상향과 르네상스의 섬-유토피아

Abstract

Elysian Fields depicted in Hesiod’s Works and Days are called ‘the Island of the Blessed.’ Elysian Fields become the prototype of Western thoughts and fantasy related to the islands of paradise. It is Greek philosopher Plato who first gave stimulus to the formation of the idea of island-ideal state with Elysian Fields legend in the West. Plato himself, however, did not mention the island where the idea state was realized. He had just mentioned the island in which strong power was built in the context of discussing the ideal state. Plato’s story about the ideal state and island state stirred the imagination of many later thinkers. For example, in the Hellenism age, Iambulos is known to have left writings about ‘Island of the Sun’ in which ideal society was formed. The Christian doctrine of the Middle Ages that the true paradise exists in heaven and that the worldly order is intended by God did not allow the idea of worldly ideal society. The Christian doctrine, however, did not permit the denial of the worldly order but recognized the earthly paradise based on the Messiah, that is, longing for Canaan. And Canaan was commonly imagined as an island. Thomas More’s Utopia had been influenced by ancient Greek thoughts, and its idea was gotten from the geographical discoveries. More’s Utopia, like a book of transition period, has two aspects of return to the Middle Ages and the prior taking of modern times. First, the agriculture-oriented communistic system has quite the nature of return to the Middle Ages in that it is reminiscent of medieval brother community. However, citizens’ legal and economic equality, representative democracy, federal political system, and implementation of common education, and religious pluralism prove the prior taking of modernity of national planning. Like More, Campanella views human beings’ selfishness and the desire to possess as the root of all evil, and attempts to control these by the communistic system and ethical and religious education. But Campanella’s ideal can easily be combined with the ideology of an absolute monarchy, which can be said to be modern in a sense. It is because the City of the Sun resembles the absolute monarchy that emerged and developed in the early part of modern times. Campanella, however, believed that the existing powerful state plays the role of the medium to bring about a better future state faster. The New Atlantis (1624), which is referred to as three great ‘island-Utopia’ literatures of Renaissance together with Utopia and The City of the Sun, is the work of Francis Bacon. In this book Bacon never feels any problem in the absolutism, the strict class order, and the economic order based on private property. But in Bacon’s thoughts, the ruling main body leading this development is no longer a monarch but scientists. And the contribution of these people pursues in the direction of better satisfying the desires of individual humans. In this sense, Bacon’s idea of island-Utopia differs essentially from the idea of island-Utopia of More and Campanella who attempted to realize the ideal state through the control of desires.