Talking Privately in Utopia: Ideals of Silence and Dissimulation in Smeeks’ Krinke Kesmes (1708)

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter shows how reading a utopia from the perspective of social knowledge production can furnish new understanding of the practice of private conversation in early modern Europe in “Talking Privately in Utopia: Ideals of Silence and Dissimulation in Smeeks’ Krinke Kesmes (1708)”. Taking the example of Hendrik Smeeks’ Description of the Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes, the chapter explores how dissimulation and silence became tools of privacy within utopian writing. Benison’s findings on dissimulation as a virtue in the Kesmian society challenge the standard focus on the ethic of public transparency governing early modern utopias, as in Thomas More’s depiction of Utopia’s total lack of privacy.