JONATHAN SWIFT 1667 - 1745...YAHOOS • monstrous and malicious creatures • like apes • Gulliver...

JONATHAN SWIFT

1667 - 1745

degree by “special grace”

• Dublin - English parents

• rebellious - nonconformist nature - intolerant of contradictions / injustices: obtained his degree by “special grace”

• 1689: Civil War between Catholics and Protestants

England: secretary of Sir William Temple

Whig stateman and scholar

encouraged him to write - first satirical works

London

◘ meet many influential political

personalities

◘ library - develop literary talent

◘ tutor of Temple’s ward Esther Johnson

Esther Johnson

a man tried by life

• 1694: Ireland - Anglican priest

• love story not reciprocated

• disabling brain disorder

• Resolution: never to marry

• pamphleteer - irritating political manoeuvring

NATIONAL HERO

• 1720: first pamphlets – injustices Ireland

suffered

NATIONAL HERO

though Ireland place of exile

HOMO SAPIENS

Swift seriously concerned in politics and society

The Age of Reason

MAN seen as a RATIONAL CREATURE

reach CIVILIZATION - common sense

YET

no “HOMO SAPIENS”

no disinterested rationality

no civilization

His Masterpiece

1726: Gulliver's Travels

British society

deforming and intensifying lenses

I BOOK: LILLIPUT

• political power struggle in London

tiny court of Lilliput

High-Heels - Low-Heels

Big-Endians - Small-Endians

• Gulliver fails to see resemblances

UNABLE TO SEE

• PLAYFUL PLACE: dolls

• estrangement – defamiliarization

(text p.234-235)

• minute dimensions

narrow-mindedness,

moral smallness

II BOOK: THE GIANTS

• "SIMPLE VIRTUE“

art of governing: limited knowledge

they can't understand European political

maneuvering

• Gulliver proud of his civilization

THE DEEPEST WOUND

this is no longer a playful place

"mankind is the most pernicious race

of little odious vermin that Nature ever

suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth”

permanent mark

the LITTLENESS of HUMANITY

• difficult to get used to the LITTLENESS of his world

• after Book 4: MORAL littleness admiration for the rational virtues of the Houyhnhnms

Gulliver CHANGES

Robinson Crusoe changes the others

III BOOK: THE FLYING ISLAND

OF LAPUTA

Academy of Lagado (text p. 235-237)

• parody of the Royal Society

• normal size but distorted vision

• abstract learning - absurd experiments

IV BOOK:

HOUYHNHNMS AND YAHOOS HOUYHNHNMS

laws of REASON

represent RATIONALITY

• life = DEATH-LIKE

• COMPLETE TRANQUILLITY which is like DEATH

untouched by LIFE

A DREARY UTOPIA

VIRTUES

REASONABLENESS TOLERANCE PATIENCE CALM

THEY LACK

EMOTIONS LOVE PASSION FEELINGS

ENJOYMENT [INTENSE] PLEASURE ENERGY

HATRED FEAR SUFFERING / SORROW

ANGER CURIOSITY ART

ORWELL: A DREARY UTOPIA

YAHOOS

• monstrous and malicious creatures

• like apes

• Gulliver painfully forced to admit they are like men

• 3 stages:

1) as disgusting as possible

2) very similar to man [physically at least]

3) men morally WORSE than the Yahoos

MAN = physically repulsive

morally corrupt

proud without any cause (text p. 243-244 + handout)

Not only political satire

contemporary political satire

parody of empiricism and individualism of

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719)

parody of literature of travel

reflection on aberrations of human reason

tale for children (fascination with dolls…)

……

contrast-within-contrast technique

central theme: RATIONALITY versus ANIMALITY

BOOK 1 RATIONALITY

Lilliputians' rationality ridiculous instrument of cruelty

bestial

ANIMALITY

Gulliver big body dominated by physiological needs

more human than the Lilliputians

contrast-within-contrast technique

BOOK 2

RATIONALITY

Gulliver reflects on man's use of reason

bestial

ANIMALITY

Giants large, disgusting bodies

great sense of morality

contrast-within-contrast technique

BOOK 4

RATIONALITY

horses PURE REASON

ANIMAL

ANIMALITY

Yahoos bestial and abominable

degenerate species of MAN

DISGUISE SATIRE

AIM: TO DEFLATE HUMAN PRIDE

concealed purpose

fable

book of voyages

◘ realistic details

◘ matter-of-fact prose style

◘ MAPS

….

MAP ON THE QUESTION OF THE GENRE

A Modest Proposal

• same satire tactic

• projector

• reader disarmed

destructive power of satire

sell children to be eaten

A Controversial Writer

message

• reason must be used properly

• too intensive a use of reason is unreasonable

• common-sense view of life