Joshua Avery

• Professor
• University of Dallas

This article argues that The Merchant of Venice’s dramatic action invites consideration of the philosophical questions of human agency and intelligibility. The play’s dialogue provokes the reader or auditor to consider what may obstruct or allow for both meaningful action in the world and a genuine understanding of that world. Since these issues we...

This essay, following an existing train of scholarship working to make sense of the Platonic connection to Utopia, argues for nomos as a useful angle in furthering this understanding. Raphael's approach to politics combines with the Utopian social system to suggest a highly Platonic vision of nomos, whereby social norms are absorbed into an essenti...

This essay argues that Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner represents in its imagery a tension within Coleridge prior to his conversion to Anglicanism. Specifically, the poem’s treatment of institutional sacraments argues for their apparent inefficacy, at least from the Mariner’s vantage point. The sacramental idea upheld by a High Church view...

This essay responds to an argument made by R. Bracht Branham, who has argued that More's Utopia privileges Raphael Hythloday's voice over Morus's. Branham contrasts this dynamic with Lucian's Cynicus, in which he contends that the dominant Cynic speaker is ironically undermined. For Branham, More's idealism moves him to privilege the idealistic Rap...

The essay below aims to add to an existing point of discussion in the critical literature on A Dialogue of Comfort, namely the soldierly nature of Vincent's education. In my study, I hope to demonstrate, via close readings of the first two merry tales from Book Two, that these two narratives combine to encourage Vincent to reconsider his understand...

This paper argues that the famous wooing scene of Anne by Richard in Shakespeare's King Richard III offers an imaginative reply to a question posed, but not explicitly answered, by Thomas More's History. How does a figure held in general "obloquy" suddenly fall into "so great trust"? I contend that Anne's vulnerability to Richard's tactics is large...

This paper argues that the famous wooing scene of Anne by Richard in Shakespeare’s King Richard III offers an imaginative reply to a question posed, but not explicitly answered, by Thomas More’s History. How does a figure held in general “obloquy” suddenly fall into “so great trust”? I contend that Anne’s vulnerability to Richard’s tactics is large...

This study draws upon the Platonic dialogue tradition as a background for interpreting the conversation between More and his daughter Margaret Roper, as depicted in Margaret’s letter to Alice Alington. With an eye to the famously ironic Socrates, this article will propose the interpretation of a puzzling statement regarding More’s apparent good fai...