THE SOCIO-POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF SATIRE AND IRONY IN JONATHAN SWIFT'S GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Keywords:
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Satire, Irony, Socio-Political Critique, Eighteenth-Century Literature, Political Allegory, Narrative Technique, Social Commentary, Institutional HypocrisyAbstract
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) stands as one of literature's most potent vehicles for socio-political critique, employing satire and irony as instruments of social commentary and institutional critique. This article examines how Swift's multilayered satirical technique targets the political corruption, scientific pretension, and moral hypocrisy of early eighteenth-century England. Through systematic analysis of Swift's voyage narratives, particularly his depictions of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms, this study demonstrates that the novel functions as a sophisticated political allegory whose ironic reversals expose the absurdity of contemporary power structures, colonial expansion, and human pride. The article further explores how Swift's deployment of ironic narration through the seemingly naive protagonist Gulliver permits multiple layers of meaning that simultaneously entertain and indict. We argue that the enduring significance of Gulliver's Travels derives from Swift's masterful integration of formal innovation, satirical strategy, and ideological critique, making it essential to understanding both eighteenth-century political discourse and the development of the modern novel.
References
1. Swift J. Gulliver's Travels. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726. – 416 p.
2. Probyn C. The Art of Jonathan Swift. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. – 289 p.
3. Quintana R. The Mind and Art of Jonathan Swift. London: Methuen, 1965. – 367 p.
4. Williams K. Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1958. – 405 p.
5. Rawson C. Gulliver and the Gentle Reader. London: Routledge, 1973. – 234 p.
6. Davis H. Jonathan Swift: Essays on His Satire and Other Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964. – 289 p.
7. Orrery J. Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift. London: A. Millar, 1751. – 398 p.
8. Sharafuddin M. Islam and Romantic Orientalism: Literary Encounters with the Orient. London: I. B. Tauris, 1994. – 267 p.
9. Backscheider P. R. Jonathan Swift at Twenty: Politics and Poetry in the Early Career. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. – 312 p.
10. Fox C. The Myth of the Master: Readers and Authors in Colonial America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. – 278 p.
11. Said E. W. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. – 368 p.
12. Johnson E. E. Equestrian Aesthetics in Literature and Philosophy: Swift to Rethink the Hierarchy. Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2019. – P. 345–367.
13. Markley R. The Far East and the English Imagination: 1600–1730. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. – 456 p.
14. Monk S. H. The Sublime: A Study of Critical Theories in Eighteenth-Century England. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1960. – 456 p.
15. Harth P. Swift and Anglican Rationalism: The Religious Background of A Tale of a Tub. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. – 378 p.
