Comparing Sir Thomas Mores Utopia and Virgils Aeneid Essay -- Compar

Identity and Power in Sir Thomas muchs Utopia and Virgils AeneidIn Utopia and the Aeneid, Sir Thomas More and Virgil describe the construction and perpetuation of a bailiwick identity. In the former, the Utopian state operates on the inside by enforcing, by methods of surveillance, a normalized identity on its citizens under the guise of bettering their lives. In the latter, the deplete national identity of the future Romans in the wake of the Trojan warfare must reformulate itself from the outside by focusing on formation what it is not. In both instances, the lines between the inside and the outside are intelligibly drawn and redrawn. The two methodologies are in actuality the flipsides of one another in clearly defining the accepted national identity and contrasting with it the riskiness and instability outside this narrow conception, the state is legitimized in doing violence on a massive scale to either eliminate the constructed outside little terror or to further the i mperialistic project so that these lines remain in built and unquestioned. In Utopia, the state imposes a culture of normalization to formulate a national identity that both defines and binds its citizens. The fifty-four towns of the country are to the highest degree identical with the same language, laws, customs, and institutions (More 70). Even the appearances of individuals resemble each other with no distinctions in dress. This imposition of conformity serves to form a singular national identity that is artificial yet prevalent. As a result, the normalization is internalized by the people, becoming a cult of self-surveillance where the uniformity of physical appearances is superceded only by the uniformity of identity. The state succeeds in establishing a panopt... ...te literary Trojan Horse. As the representative work of the entire Western civilization, his work is guaranteed wide dissemination. However, the ambivalence of his literary conventions often traps the unwitting reader and forces him or her to confront the uncivilized undercurrents of Pax Romana. In essence, More and Virgil speak to the dangers of imposing a normative national identity that actually becomes the flipside of a violent imperialist project. More importantly, they open up space for dissent by critiquing the seemingly sonorous state system from the inside and thus exposing its inherent contradictions precariously built on a foundation of violence.Works CitedVirgil. The Aeneid of Virgil A Verse Translation. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Ed. Brian Wilkie. virgin York Macmillan, 1987.More, Thomas, Sir. Utopia. Trans. Paul Turner. New York Penguin, 1965.