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Research Paper | Literature | Senegal | Volume 12 Issue 1, January 2023

The Utopian Genre and its Expressions through Plato, Thomas More, Willa Cather and John Steinbeck

Dr. Mouhamed Abdou Latif | Dr. Ibrahima Dieme

Abstract: This paper discusses the utopian genre and its expression in the works of Plato, Thomas More, John Steinbeck and Willa Cather, particularly in the representation that the latter two make of the Califonian West. This vast territory which presents itself as a promised land, a mythical place where adventure and imagination meet. Utopia as a genre inherited from Plato and Thomas More seems to express itself in the works of Steinbeck and Cather in the form of a quest for an elsewhere symbolized by the vast West and the figure of both the pioneer and the errand migrant, who see in the West the very topos where their wildest dreams might come true. Based on a historical and sociological approaches to literary texts, the paper examines the origins of the utopian genre, as it evolved over time and expresses itself in the works of Plato, More, Cather and Steinbeck.

Keywords: adventure, dream, myth, promised land, utopia

Edition: Volume 12 Issue 1, January 2023,

Pages: 3 - 7

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