CHAPTER 4 - HISTORY, SATIRE AND PARODY

Question 1

4.1 Swiftian Satire
“To vex the World rather than divert it”

What G does that he never done to that extent : he addresses the reader 2 things :

Answer 1

I am telling the truth
States his intentions as a writer

“My principal design was to inform, and not to amuse thee” IV,12, 272
“I write for the noblest End, to inform and instruct Mankind” IV, 12, 273-274

Question 2

I’m not writing to entertain you

Answer 2

= attack on a certain type of travel narratives

–“The chief end I propose in all my Labours is to vex the World rather than divert it” (letter to Pope)

Question 3

G takes on the role of a moralist :
a moralist =

Answer 3

• A writer concern with moral principles and problems
• Someone concerned with regulating the morals of others.
  ⇒ Here Gulliver is both

Question 4

Pope

Answer 4

one of the greatest satirical writer of the 18th century, help swift create the scribilus club.

Question 5

Swift is distancing himself, when he writes this from the classical authors, what Horace wrote in Ars Poetica The best way to write

Answer 5

“Who can blend usefulness and sweetness wins every / Vote, at once delighting and teaching the reader.” (342-343)

VS what Swift proposes to do it’s not to delight or to divert but to irritate and to inform= to confront humankind vices and flaws.

Question 6

Critics usually distinguish btw horatian satire and JUVENALIAN SATIRE = named after classical authors

Answer 6

Horatian = The satire voice is gentle, the aim is to correct follys, by provoking smiles ⇒ Idea that it is always possible to be formed. In that regard, it is the opposite of

JUVENALIAN satire = satirical voice directly attacks : indignant and bitter fashion JUVENALIAN satire usually posit that redemption, correction, improvement are impossible.

Question 7

Each satire in each book?

Answer 7

In the 4 voyages and in the general mvt from Liliput to the Hynhms, the horatian satire in book 1 and 2 ⇒ JUVENALIAN satire in book 4 because of violence of book 3 which acts as a sort of transition between the 2 modes.

Question 8

Satire in each book and how

Answer 8

Satire is to attack something to correct it
The literary art of diminishing, by making it ridiculous

In bk 1 and 2 Gulliver & Liliputians vs book 2 Gulliver tends to be a midget in the land of giant. But also other instances of diminishing processes. We’re not just talking about size but also about debilitating.

Human, animal proposition, human machines, human spirits vs the human body in sketological dimensions. All of those processes = instances of debilitating that Swift the satirist uses to criticise human’s pride and its belief of its own superiority.

Question 9

Irony, Linda Hutcheon

Answer 9

Irony = “indirect, double-voiced discourse”

⇒ diff from everyday life.
⇒ always 2 lvl of meaning because phrases a word = use to express sth different from what is made.
⇒ Surface meaning & underlying meaning

Irony = rhetorical strategy = the main strategical mechanism that a text uses to activate the reader’s awareness of – and irony.
Irony = red flag : the text is either parodying or satirical or both when GT

When Irony in Swift’s text : constant use of tropes such as antiphrasis, euphemism and hyperboles.

Question 10

Irony, Linda Hutcheon

Answer 10

Irony = “indirect, double-voiced discourse”

⇒ diff from everyday life.
⇒ always 2 lvl of meaning because phrases a word = use to express sth different from what is made.
⇒ Surface meaning & underlying meaning

Irony = rhetorical strategy = the main strategical mechanism that a text uses to activate the reader’s awareness of – and irony.
Irony = red flag : the text is either parodying or satirical or both when GT

Question 11

How irony takes places in GT

Answer 11

When Irony in Swift’s text : constant use of tropes such as antiphrasis, euphemism and hyperboles.

1 example (also ex of mocko-heroism) BK 2 chap 1 (erreur diapo)
The theme of war ranks through the 4 voyages.
Bk 1 : war btw Lilliput and Blefuscu
Bk 2/4? : G speaks about war with his hosts
Bk 3 : civil/ colonial war btw laputa and colonial–

Question 12

Example of Irony

Answer 12

“These horrible Animals had the Boldness to attack me on both Sides, and one of them held his Fore-feet at my Collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his Belly before he could do me any Mischief. He fell down at my Feet; and the other seeing the Fate of his Comrade, made his Escape, but not without one good Wound on the Back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the Blood run trickling from him. After this Exploit I walked gently to and fro on the Bed, to recover my Breath and Loss of Spirits. These Creatures were of the Size of a large Mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my Belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to Pieces and devoured. I measured the Tail of the dead Rat, and found it to be two Yards long, wanting an Inch.” (IV, 1, 84)

⇒ animals are personified, has human emotions and are presented as soldiers engaging in the enemy (gulliver), in a bloody battle.
At the end of this episode, Gulliver the narrator presents what has happened as an exploit.
⇒ as an instance on the rats– → exaggeration
G is grandstanding for his mistress & he is grandstanding for his readers.
In the text, his mistress applauds the exploit but then turns the way and discuss to have someone else and ask someone else of the dead rat. Dead rat as a trophy but his own mistress find it quite disgusting.
⇒ conclusion of the passage
⇒ passage w/ slip from mock-heroism to scataological ++ in Bk 1 an 2

G has to be taken out to pee outside like a cat or a dog.
⇒ illustrate irony : discrepancy that creates ridicule. The hero is a coward who backstands one of his opponents. If you replace this passage in the general context of bk 2 there are obvious connections. In BK 2 Gulliver’s pride is constantly being challenged.

⇒ Satire is here targeted to Gulliver (e is diminished). Gulliver the character and narrator and through him, satire is also aimed at humankind more generally because blood thirsty species.

Question 13

Targets and interpretation

Answer 13

GT isn’t just satire of 1 aspect of society but also constant oscillation btw specific targets & more general ones.

Swift before was a satirical writer before being a writer. Line of continuity btw his old text and GT.
Satire of modern, royalist, scientist society. But one subject he doesn’t directly address in GT. BK 1 : reference but it is an isolated ref.
⇒ importance of handnotes BUT we have multiple targets of satire

Question 14

(Marshall, The Practice of Satire in England, 1685-1770, 2013) on targets & interpretations

Answer 14

“what remains contested are the larger issues of the overall object of satire what it tells about Swift’s values and his view of the world. […] Gulliver’s Travels, whether we like it or not, is essentially opaque, and scholars tend to find in it what they are predisposed to find.”

Question 15

GT allows ++ interpretation but also misinterpretation and anachronistic interpretation . ex
BK 3, chap 3, p158?

Answer 15

• Laputa contemplates the capability of universal destruction ⇒ but destruction diff in 21st century post Hiroshima and Nagasaki than for 18th reader.
• Houyhnhnms discussion of exterminating the yahoo, bk 4 p 151 ⇒ for us in 21st century, think about WW2 and holocaust
• Houyhnhnms & their practices, 252 : exchanging children : cf totalitarian regimes

⇒ the text allows such interpretation BUT in our analysis we need to be careful in the way we present things

Question 16

4.2 Political satire
During each of his voyages Gullive discusses his country especially in BK 2 and 4. There are ++ allusions (indirect) and references (direct) to historical events

Answer 16

⇒ civil war of 60s and 40s p 238
⇒ execution of Charles 1st p 22 & p43
⇒ 1688 glorious revolution, p43
⇒ the final years of Queen Anne’s reign, p254

Question 17

Out of the 4 voyages, the one which is the most anchored in his historical context of the 18th England

Answer 17

the 1st voyage is predominantly political and attacks, criticises the changes in the political regime after the death of Queen Anne.
Can describe the 1st voyage as political allegory in which target satire as easily identifiable at least for the text readers in 18th.

Question 18

Examples of 18th context

Answer 18

• Lilliput and Blefuscu stands respectively for England & France and the war btw Islands = allusion to war in the 18th
• The emperor stands for George the 1st and Flimpnap for the wedding lead minister Robert Walpole = chief minister of State ((= he is considered as the 1st PM)). Swift hated Walpole. Flminap = satiric paradigme of royal favourite
• Slamecksan/Low heels and the Tramecksan / High heels : the low heels allow to the low church and the High heel to the high church tories. Severity of G’s sentence is reminiscent of torian repression of the jacobites
• G extinguish the fire = try to put an end to war of Spanish succession

Question 19

Use of acrobatic as a satiric trope, I, 3, 33-34

Answer 19

Rope-dancing “This Diversion is only practised by those Persons, who are Candidates for great Employments, and high Favour, at Court.” (33)

The stick exercise “The Emperor holds a Stick in his Hands, both ends parallel to the Horizon, while the Candidates advancing one by one, sometimes leap over the Stick, sometimes creep under it” (34)

=> Swift positions G as his naive spectator who admires the dexterity and magnificence of Lilliputians. At this point we’re still dealing with G the gullible spectator.

=> HOWEVER clear discrepancy as what is presented as a diversion and what is at stake : we’re dealing with people that are vying for highest position in gvt. Not just fun = actual organisation of political power. Doing the summerset leaping creepy
⇒ those verbs = indirect way to criticise favouritism and sycophancy
⇒ this passage = attack on robinocracy

Question 20

robinocracy

Answer 20

= term used to refer to the wig system of gvt under Walpole.

= Robinocracy is very often use as a derogatory expression because Walpole’s reign, time as chief minister tend to symbolise corruption in politics and society.

Question 21

Ashely Marshall : “Swift’s frustration seems more topical than universal”

Answer 21

⇒ we readers cannot not take into consideration how historical and political context inform the text ⇒ tend to be more topical than universal.
For contemporary readers we’re going to think about relaO btw corruption and politic, not about Walpole.

Swift superimposes his attacks : the text has both punctual /topical and universal significance

Question 22

4.2 Swift’s satire of scientific knowledge
→ The pursuit of knowledge

Answer 22

knowledge which was essential in the age of enlightenement.
Those chapters have to be read as a satirical parody of french philosopher Francis Bacon’s and his Advancement of Learning in which he proposes a new science of observation and experiment

Questioning the pursuit of knowledge means asking about things like its aims Is pursuit of knowledge a good thing ? Does humans benefit from the pursuit of knowledge ?

⇒ 1st clue = episode with the gunpowder page 124

Question 23

Knowledge BK3

Answer 23

Book 3 : trajectory of character in those 3 chapter.
Starts in Laputa = aristocratic society is obsessed with music and mathematics.
So obsessed with it that food is caught into geometrical forms or arranged to resemble instruments, p 148
Clothes are made using cuadron and compasses and therefore abdly made, p149
⇒ disconnect btw theoretical science and its practical application
⇒ this is made evident in the description of Liliputians houses. Like their clothes

Question 24

What is satirised in knowledge?
+ Lagado

Answer 24

not pursuit of knowledge in itself but the disconnect btw theoretical science and its practical application

Lagado = a city of desolation and decay with the exception of Lord Munodi’s estate = example of perfection, pastoral perfection which is nonetheless threatened by the scientific pursue of the academic research & economy of projectors.

Question 25

Chap 5 G visits the academy and in chap 5 and 6 : catalogue of scientific insanities :

Answer 25

cucumber into sunbeams
Excrements into original constituents
Cobwebs made into silk
Marble to make pink cushions

In each, – “the extremities of intellectual aspiration out of touch with physical realities, the signs of which are bodily unpleasant” (Clive T. Probyn)

⇒ lofty pursuit. Projectors presented as dirty and smelly bunch of people

– unfruitful attempts: “It was indeed my Misfortune to find them at that Time not very perfect in their Lessons” (III, 5, 168)

– unfruitful attempts: “It was indeed my Misfortune to find them at that Time not very perfect in their Lessons” (III, 5, 168)

Idea that each of those experiments try to combine natural opposite
Ex : try to transform sth ordinary into luxurious / useful

Question 26

Alchemist

Answer 26

mediaeval idea : based material should be turned into gold.

Question 27

⇒ what is questioned and satirised in those 2 chapters is not knowledge itself, it’s not the pursuit of knowledge itself either, it is rather

Answer 27

it is rather the hubris of the scientist who need to find explanation for everything.

Question 28

hubris

Answer 28

classical tragedy : the hero usually dies at the end because of a tragic flaw, the most common = hubris = orgueil demesuré. Ex : Prométhée vole le feu à Zeus”)

Question 29

→ Parodying empirical science

Answer 29

– G the narrator imitates the empirical style recommended by Francis Bacon and his followers. A style based on observation which is plane — by the royal society. The english royal society on which he models the grand academy of Lagado on book 3.

The text tells us that the royal society and grand academy of Lagado were founded around 1606s. Not only that but some of the crazy xp that G describes in book 3 are recognizable derivations from actual experiments of the royal society. Readers, familiar with the royal society wold recognize what G described as imitating what has been done by the scientist and royal society.

Question 30

– the Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society
(Thomas Sprat, historian of the Royal Society)

Answer 30

a “naked, natural way of speaking; positive expressions; clear senses; […] bringing all things as near the mathematical plainness as they can”
⇒ this is what has been parodied in BK 3. What is parodied = stylistic and scientific norms of the time. Excessive repetitions of certain words

Question 31

2 others parodying empirical science

Answer 31

– stylistic and scientific norms
– topical satire / a more universal satire

Question 32

stylistic and scientific norms

Answer 32

phaenomenon, observation, account, enquiry, description, discover, explain, examine = rhetorical device. Their excess occurs in meaning. This parody can also be related to the parody of travel narrative and their insistence on being truthful account based on observations.

Question 33

– topical satire / a more universal satire

Answer 33

There is also // with political satire. The topical satire = criticism of Bacon And epistemology of empiricism has to be considered in parallel with the more universal satire of the hubris of mankind who tries to master and dominate nature with a particular style of writing.

Question 34

The more we progress in voyages the less easily identifiable are the target of satire.

Answer 34

BK 4 target of satire = not exactly easily identifiable. From political satire in BK 1 and 2 to satire and — to BK 4 rejection of human nature.

In each book, articulation btw topical and universal satire and gradual shift from topical satire (liliput, satire of henriarian england) to general satire in bk 4.
This shift is also thought in the role Gulliver has of the narrative.

G isn’t a fully flushed character, it is difficult to discern the character’s psychological unity. He, the narrator, should be understood as a satirist persona.
– general movement of the narrative and the role/function of Gulliver in it : a satirist persona, a vector for Swift’s satirical writing in BKs 1 to 3. (change in Bk 4)

Question 35

Robert Elliott: (The Power of Satire: Ritual, Art) (what happen at Gulliver at end BK 4, he is exiled from the land of Hoyhhms)

Answer 35

“The railor who drives away evil may at the same time be made to take upon himself the accumulated evil of his people. He may be ceremoniously beaten and exiled, if not slain.”

Question 36

While G is shown as capable of adapting to a new envt he never fully integrate. He remains a visitor of someone whose circumstances are precarious, as with the characters in exile with his own home country.

Answer 36

– passivity, tendency to be fooled, manipulated and blindsided

– a passive instrument of satire who ends up being the victim of the satirical project

– his role as the narrator and that of the reader

G throughout the voyages is the passive instrument of th voyages who ends up being the satirical victim of voyages in BK 4. This calls his attention of what is the role as a narrator and role as an interpretation reader.

– “gentle” (85, 272), “candid” (9, 24), “judicious” (9, 148, 273), “curious” (51, 56, 82, 101), “indulgent” (81) etc

– metafictional dimension = a dialogue with different types of readers. We,the readers are not the passive spectators of G’s travels. We are supposed to be active participants in the elaboration of meaning.