Lacan, Foucault, and the Malleable Subject in Early Modern English Utopian Literature (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)

"Theoretically informed scholarship on early modern English utopian literature has largely focused on Marxist interpretation of these texts in an attempt to characterize them as proto- Marxist. The present volume instead focuses on subjectivity in early modern English utopian writing by using these texts as case studies to explore intersections of the thought of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. Both Lacan and Foucault moved back and forth between structuralist and post-structuralist intellectual trends and ultimately both defy strict categorization into either camp. Although numerous studies have appeared that compare Lacan's and Foucault's thought, there have been relatively few applications of their thought together onto literature. By applying the thought of both theorists, who were not literary critics, to readings of early modern English utopian literature, this study will, on the one hand, describe the formation of utopian subjectivity that is both psychoanalytically (Oedipal and pre-Oedipal) and socially constructed, and, on the other hand, demonstrate new ways in which the thought of Lacan and Foucault inform and complement each other when applied to literary texts. The utopian subject is a malleable subject, a subject whose linguistic, psychoanalytical subjectivity determines the extent to which environmental and social factors manifest in an identity that moves among Lacan's Symbolic, Imaginary, and Real"-- Provided by publisher This book focuses on subjectivity in early modern English utopian writing to explore intersections of the thought of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 10 2.1 Thomas More, De optimo reip. statu, deque noua insula Vtopia, libellusuere aureus, nec minus salutaris quám festiuus (Basel, 1518), B3r. © The BritishLibrary Board, C.27.b30 49 9.1 Mapus Mundi, Mundus Alter et Idem Siue Terra Australis (Frankfort, 1605/1607), p. 18, Newberry Library, Case Y 682.H14 Special Collections 174 9.2 Pamphagonia, Mundus Alter et Idem Siue Terra Australis, p. 112, Newberry Library, Case Y 682.H14 Special Collections 182 9.3 Viraginia, Mundus Alter et Idem Siue Terra Australis, p. 90, Newberry Library, Case Y 682.H14 Special Collections 182 9.4 Morania, Mundus Alter et Idem Siue Terra Australis, p. 20, Newberry Library, Case Y 682.H14 Special Collections 183 9.5 Lavernia, Mundus Alter et Idem Siue Terra Australis, p. 192, Newberry Library, Case Y 682.H14 Special Collections 184 10.1 James Harrington, Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), title page, with Permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 198 10.2 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), dedication page, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library-UCLA 199 10.3 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), p. 55, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library-UCLA 201 10.4 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), p. 58, with permission of the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, UCLA 202 10.5 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), p. 61, with permission of the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, UCLA 205 10.6 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), p. 102, with permission of the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, UCLA 206 10.7 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656), p. 24, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 208 10.8 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656) p. 131, with permission of the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, UCLA 210 10.9 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656) p. 81, with permission of the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, UCLA 211 10.10 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656) pp. 86–87, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 212 10.11 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656) pp. 284–285, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 214 10.12 James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656) pp. 210–211, with permission of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 215 11.1 Henry Neville, Isle of Pines (London, 1668), frontispiece, RB 8787, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California 223 Acknowledgments 12 Section 1 Introductory Matters 14 1 Introducing Utopia 16 2 “If Only this Were Some Day Possible”: Thomas More’s Utopia and Lacan’s Three Orders of Subjectivity 34 Section 2 The Utopian Symbolic 56 3 Stealth Self on the Shelf: Surveillance, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, and Symbolic Subjectivity 58 4 Power is Knowledge: Surveillance, Biopower, and Linguistic Subjectivity in John Eliot’s The Christian Commonwealth 74 5 Linguistic Subjectivity and Linguistic Utopia in Francis Lodwick’s A Country Not Named 94 Section 3 The Utopian Imaginary 108 6 “Out of the Authority of the Arabians”: Orientalism and Utopian Intellectual History in Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy 110 7 Gerrard Winstanley’s Utopian Mission 130 8 Margaret Cavendish’s Book of Imaginary Beings: Philosophical Animals and Physiognomic Philosophers in The Blazing World 146 Section 4 The Utopian Real 168 9 Joseph Hall’s Mundus Alter et Idem and Geo-satirical Indictment of the English Crown 170 10 James Harrington’s Commonwealth of Oceana and Typographical Utopia 189 11 Pornographic Miscegenation and Dystopic Apocalypse in Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines 221 12 Conclusion 241 Bibliography 248 Index 274 Biopower;,Linguistic,Subjectivity;,Orientalism;,Symbolic,Subjectivity;,Utopian,Mission Biopower,Linguistic Subjectivity,Orientalism,Symbolic Subjectivity,Utopian Mission By applying the thought of both Lacan and Foucault, this study describes the formation of constructed utopian subjectivity and demonstrate new ways in which the thought of Lacan and Foucault inform and complement each other when applied to literary texts.