James Harrington’s Utopian Radicalism: Oceana and the Narration of an Alternative World

Abstract

Chapter 10 explores Harrington’s Oceana as a case study in the relationship between the radical, the utopian and narrative fiction. By the 1650s, prolonged civil conflict had undermined the legitimacy of existing political and constitutional narratives. Harrington’s ambition was to provide a new narrative which could embrace all parties and bring an end to partisan conflict. Going beyond being yet another set of proposals, his narrative aspired to reveal the underlying forces productive of conflict and apparent impasse and lead to new institutional and procedural structures which would reconcile power and authority. Addressing the problem of perceived ‘reality’ and its illusions, Harrington sought to engage his readers’ imaginations in the vicarious experience of an alternative theatre of politics through their reading of Oceana and its operation. In so doing, he produced a classic utopian fiction.