Thinking against utopia: A comparison between Thomas More and Emil Cioran

The purpose of this article is to underline the relation between Utopia and carnival imagery in More’s dialogue. Additionally, we aim at clarifying Cioran’s definition of Utopia as “the grotesque en rose”. Subsequently, we try to define the concepts of “seriousness” and “futility” in Cioran’s interpretation of utopian literature. When Cioran says that “futility is the most difficult thing in the world”, he is actually pointing out a problem that will enable us to outline the paradoxical condition of the inhabitants of Utopia. We will see that in Cioran’s writings the utopian idea of building a perfect society is necessary and ridiculous at the same time. It consists in a human attempt to renew the world, which reveals the double nature of this renovation: serious and grotesque at the same time. In fact, Utopia is a revolutionary city that looks like a carnivalesque overturning of this unrighteous reality. Thanks to the enlightening analysis of Carlo Ginzburg, we will examine the complex game that More entertains with Lucian of Samosata and the “ritual of inversion” in his Saturnalia. Finally, we will see how the concept of “inversion” operates in Cioran’s reflections about history and politics, where he defines utopia as the desire “to remake Eden with the instruments of the Fall”.