UTOPIE VERSUS DISTOPIE ÎN OPERELE SCRIITORILOR DIMITRIE CANTEMIR ȘI JONATHAN SWIFT
UTOPIA VERSUS DYSTOPIA IN THE WORKS OF THE WRITERS DIMITRIE CANTEMIR AND JONATHAN SWIFT

Summary/Abstract: This study examines both the manner in which the two authors, Dimitrie Cantemir and Jonathan Swift, construct certain societies, with particular regard to the concepts of utopia and dystopia, and the parallel that can be drawn between these societies on the basis of these two concepts. The works considered for analysis are Dimitrie Cantemir’s The Hieroglyphic History, more specifically the section Part Three, in which the journey of the Camelopard (Alexandru Mavrocordat Exaporitul) to the Citadel of Epithimia (Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, is presented, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, in all four of its sections. The aspects on which attention will be focused concern the conditions of isolation in the pursuit of an ideal life, the progress of science and prosperity, order and the manner of governance, the contrast between appearance and essence, and the integration of the stranger into the community, as these societies entail a genuine quest for perfection in itself, both on the part of the inhabitants and on the part of the author-narrators and their characters.

• Details
• Contents