ON THE QUESTION OF REFASHIONING AND ITS LIMITS IN SIR THOMAS MORE’S UTOPIA

Thomas More’s juxtaposition of the domestic and social spheres, a consequence of a lifelong process of identity construction guided by the prevailing ‘power’ of his era, is ingeniously likened by Stephen Greenblatt (2005) in his seminal work, The Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, to Holbein’s painting “The Ambassadors,” which serves as a meticulous attempt to illuminate the intricacies of More’s mentality during the composition of his work. The analytical approach adopted by Greenblatt, emphasizing the absence of a defined selfhood, is appropriate to the text. Still, it does have the potential to detract from an appreciation of More’s humanist endeavours and his rhetorical prowess. Drawing on close textual analysis of Utopia alongside Greenblatt’s Renaissance Self-Fashioning and subsequent debates on culture, subjectivity and counsel, this article argues that Greenblatt’s emphasis on “self-cancellation” underestimates the dialogic, seriocomic and Menippean dimensions of More’s humanism. The present study aims to highlight a tension between the power of institutional life and Thomas More’s self-positioning vis-à-vis the power of culture in Stephen Greenblatt’s deconstructive reading of Utopia. Then I propose alternative interpretations to Greenblatt’s that emerge from the investigation of More’s remarks on counselling and his extensive use of the rhetorical device of litotes to achieve his humanist project in Utopia, where he practices and satirizes a wide range of ideas under scrutiny at the time.