REFLECTIONS OF MEDIEVALISM IN UTOPIAN FICTION: WILLIAM MORRIS'S A DREAM OF JOHN BALL

As a medievalist utopian, in many of his works, William Morris fictionalised an ideal world in medieval times. According to him, the medieval period reflects a relatively perfect social order since the existence of feudalism hinders the period to be home to an exemplary society because of its hierarchical structure. However, the unity and harmony in the lives of the peasants and the distribution of work among the craftsmen and/or workers in the Middle Ages underlie Morris' understanding of utopia. Although the Peasant's Revolution in 1381 is ultimately an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow feudalism, he also regarded this momentous revolution as an epitome of solidarity. Thus, he believed that people could establish an ideal society within the framework of socialist ideology. In his novel A Dream of John Ball (1888), he tells of a dream where the narrator wakes up in the fourteenth century, the time of the revolt. Through his work, Morris demonstrates to the Victorian proletarians the importance of solidarity to fight against the industrialists. Within this context, this paper will elaborate on how Morris presents the Peasants' Revolt as socialist propaganda to prompt nineteenth-century British society to foster solidarity and to create an ideal world.

ÜTOPYA ROMANINDA ORTAÇAĞ YANSIMALARI: WILLIAM MORRIS'İN JOHN BALL'UN RÜYASI

Bir ütopya yazarı olan William Morris, genel olarak ideal dünya düzenini Ortaçağ döneminde geçen kurgularla yaratmıştır. Yazara göre, Ortaçağ, hiyerarşik yapısından dolayı dönemin örnek teşkil edecek bir topluma ev sahipliği yapmasına engel olan feodalizmin varlığından dolayı nispeten ideal bir toplum düzeni sunmaktadır. Ancak yine de köylülerin yaşamlarındaki uyum ve birlik ile zanaatkârlar ve/veya işçiler arasındaki iş dağılımı Morris'in ütopya algısının temelini oluşturmaktadır. Sonuç olarak feodalizmi yenmek için atılmış başarısız bir adım olsa da Morris 1381 yılında gerçekleştirilen Köylü Ayaklanması'nı dayanışmanın somut bir örneği olarak görmekteydi. Böylece insanların sosyalist ideolojiler çerçevesinde ideal bir toplum düzeni kurabileceğine inanmıştır. A Dream of John Ball (John Ball'un Rüyası) (1886) isimli romanında yazar, kendisini ayaklanmanın olduğu zamanlarda, on dördüncü yüzyılda bulan anlatıcının rüyasını anlatmaktadır. Söz konusu eserinde Morris Viktorya dönemi proletaryasına sanayicilere karşı ayaklanmak için dayanışmanın ne kadar önemli olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmada Morris'in Köylü Ayaklanması'nı on dokuzuncu yüzyıl Britanya toplumunun dayanışmayı kuvvetlendirmeleri ve ideal bir dünya kurmalarını teşvik etmek amacıyla sosyalizm propagandası olarak nasıl kullandığı ele alınacaktır.

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