JONATHAN SWIFT

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JONATHAN SWIFT

• The greatest satirist in the English language
• Appeals to children and adults
• Born in Dublin, Ireland1667
• Ordained as Anglican priest
• Early works lampooned John Locke and Isaac Newton

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JONATHAN SWIFT

• LampoonHarsh satire usually directed against an
  individual
• Many of Swifts articles were written
  anonymously although his style was recognized

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JONATHAN SWIFT

• Pseudonyma fictitious alternative to a persons
  name (alias)
• Nom de plume (pen name)Mark Twain, Richard
  Bachman
• Swift wrote as Richard SympsonGullivers cousin
  and manager

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JONATHAN SWIFT

• A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of
  poor people in Ireland from being a burden to
  their parents or country, and for making them
  beneficial to the public (pg 611)
• Written in the persona of an economist
• Ireland was oppressed by England
• Overpopulated and starving

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JONATHAN SWIFT

• Solution State-sponsored cannibalism
• Breeding farms and recipes
• Reductio ad absurdum (latin-reduction to the
  absurd)a logical argument with an absurd
  conclusion
• At an early age Swift showed signs of mental
  illness, he eventually went mad