Utopian Studies

The aim of the article is to discuss two Czech translations of Thomas More’s Utopia—one from 1950 by Bohumil Ryba, the other from 1911(?) by Jiří Foustka—and to survey debates that Utopia generated in the Czech context. Proceeding nonchronologically, I introduce several recently published critical studies about More, including Helena Tampierová’s Thomas More: Státník a teolog (Thomas More: Statesman and Theologian) and Bohumil Svoboda’s Thomas More: Světec a utopista (Thomas More: Saint and Utopian). Ryba’s translation is subsequently analyzed in the context of criticism from the socialist era (e.g., by Zdeněk Mlynář, Ladislav Štoll, and Petr Křivský); Foustka’s translation is introduced with reference to debates about Utopia in the prewar and interwar years.