jonathan swift 1667 - 1745...yahoos • monstrous and malicious creatures • like apes • gulliver...
TRANSCRIPT
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