@article{Aretoulakis_2014, title={The Prefatory/Postscript Letters to St. Thomas More’s <em>Utopia</em>: The Culture of ‘Seeing’ as a Reality-Conferring Strategy}, volume={3}, url={https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-jems/article/view/7016}, DOI={10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-14166}, abstractNote={&lt;p class=&quot;p1&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;s1&quot;&gt;The article discusses the significance of on-the-spot observation and eye witnessing as powerful scientific tools for establishing the real in the early sixteenth century. In particular, I argue that the simulation of such tools in the paratextual material to &lt;em&gt;Utopia&lt;/em&gt;, especially the prefatory/postscript letters, enhance, preemptively, the verisimilitude of the Utopian society as well as the materiality of the island at hand. If eye witnessing is reality-conferring, then, the powerful Renaissance act of reading a text as a simulation of eye witnessing is reality-conferring too. In this light, to read &lt;em&gt;Utopia&lt;/em&gt; through the paratextual letters is to place one’s trust in the literal existence of Utopia insofar as &lt;em&gt;reading&lt;/em&gt; simulates the act of &lt;em&gt;seeing&lt;/em&gt; with one’s own eyes and bearing witness to a palpable reality.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;}, journal={Journal of Early Modern Studies}, author={Aretoulakis, Emmanouil}, year={2014}, month={Mar.}, pages={91–113} }