FOREWORD - CHAP 1 - CHAP 2

Question 1

all know GG’s Travels because adapted in children books, movies, cartoons.. ⇒ become part of Western culture

2 examples :

Answer 1

• the Yahoos = the founders of the company = a fantastic name in dico = irony because of what are the yahoos in fact
• The Lilliputians = today = part of english language

Question 2

why is this book that endure ?

Answer 2

♦ 1 reason : it can be read on several levels :
→ the first Travels = story for kids, pretty humoristic, a lot of bawdy humour (=grivois). Ex : gulliver urinating on a place, mentioning the size of his penis…
→ It can also be read as a satirical exploration of its time (18th century England) and more generally, a satirical exploration of human nature.

Question 3

Swift and Ireland

Answer 3

Anglo-Irish writer 1667-1745 : his parents = english. He was part of this minority in Ireland of people with descendance of English settlers. Swift identifies as an English gentleman. Even though he spent most of his life in Ireland
Personal history intertwined with the social, political and religious history at the British Isle. He is ++ axed on British politics.

1720s : series of pamphlets on the political and economic wrongs of English colonialism in Ireland

Question 4

Book 1 : quarrel btw The Big Endians v Little indians = criticism

Answer 4

fight on how you should crack an egg = satirical translation of religious conflicts and more particularly the conflict btw catholics and protestants

Question 5

BK 2 Lupta and Bardibradi = criticism

Answer 5

: can be considered as an allegory of barabarial violence. When people of Bardibradi decided to revolt against Laputa, the King of Laputa can decide to fly over Barnibardi or even crash the people of Balnibarbi. = transcription of violence of colonial domination

Question 6

Whigs VS Tories

Answer 6

Whigs became liberal party and the Tories the conservative.

In 18th century no party (acO organisaO with leader)

⇒ mvts, factions that compete in order to dominate the house of commons.

→ Tory were in favour of strong royal power, wanted to preserve statue quos = conservative

→ VS Tories wanted the power of parliament to be increased

Question 7

Is swift a tory, a whig ?

Answer 7

Affiliation is debated, we don’t know if swift is a tory, an old school tory, a liberal etc.

+ Reign of Queen Anne (1707-1714), articles and pamphlets supporting Tory policies..
+ Swift wrote many for the Tory faction : articles and pamphlets supporting Tory during the reign of Queen Anne.

Question 8

Whig vs tories example in GT

Answer 8

GT, I,4,42 “ it is alleged indeed that the high heels are most agreeable to our ancient constitution But however this be his majesty hath determined to make us of only low heels In the Administration” of the Government and all Offices in the Gift of the Crown”

⇒ as with big indians, transcription of conflict with idea that party affiliation is determined by size of your heels.

Question 9

Turning point of Swift support of Whig / Tories

Answer 9

a turning point for Swift (to be discussed in CHAP 4). 1714 = turning point for Swift, who worked for Tory faction who is no longer at the power. After 1714 his perspective on politics changed a lot and with it the text he wrote

Question 10

Romance def

Answer 10

here = a romance is a prose narrative telling the story of imaginative characters involved in events remote in time or place (either exotic settings or distant past.) Those events are heroic, adventurious, mysterious.

Question 11

Travel literature and the emergence of the novel

Answer 11

• early 18th century CT : fiction held in suspicion especially romance “GT I, 5, 49 (her imperial Majesty’s apartment was on fire, by the carelessness of a Maid of Honour, who fell asleep while she was reading a Romance”
• travel narratives eg William Dampier’s Voyage Round the World and Woodges Rogers’s Cruising Voyage around the world = travel narratives that presented themselves as factual, as individual living experience = ++ famous
• Daniel Defoe’s 1719 Robinson Crusoe, the emergence of the novel as a genre

Question 12

GT // Defoe

Answer 12

GT and Defoe share similarities but are ++ similar than different. Cf the way they are introduced to the reader : both narratives are presented as travel narratives : both throw on the coat of actual factual travel narratives published during their time => authentic 1st-person narrative

Question 13

SATIRE

Answer 13

not a genre (i.e defined by a specific form but a mode of writing a style, a tone or technique which critically diminishes or reduces the subject in ridicule

Not a genre because
satire travel narrative, satire painting etc..

The satirist does this by arousing ridicule amusement contempt, hatred, anger, scorn, disgust or other hostile emotions (Myers and Wuskash)

Not identified by what it is but by what it tends to do

Satire both moral and social in its focus and ameliorative in its intention : corrective aim central to its identify (Hutcheon)

Satire is identified by the CONTRAST if you don’t identify what’s at work you can’t identify satire.

==> Satire at the very least of the 18th century is moral and social in its focus : very strong moral dimension. Try to correct the folly of the contemporanies.
==> Also called the era of Augustan satire

Question 14

scribbler

Answer 14

contemporary term of contempt for talentless writers

Question 15

the “Scriblerus club”

Answer 15

informal group of writers :

• Martinus Scribelrus : an imaginary authors under whose name the group wrote
• Alexander Pape : “the Rape of the Lock” 1712
  ⇒ the mock-heroic. Book described as this grand battle something that is just 2 lovers fighting about a lock of hair

-John Gay : the Beggar’s Opera (1728)
⇒ opera in the Beggar’s classes

Question 16

Swift at the time of Gt’s publication

Answer 16

: already a prolific career as a satirist
Before GT most text of GUlliver = anonymously, most people knew he was Gulliver but anonymity was important to maintain in order to avoid censorship and accusation of libel

• a tale of a Tub (published in 1704) = satirical essay about religion and about religious fanaticism/extremism, whose made subject is religious situation inc contemporary Britain and religious conflict in 18th century britain.
• A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People from being a burthen to their parents or country and for making them beneficial to the publick (published 1729) ⇒ you eat them : propose to use children of poor classes to feed the high classes.

Question 17

original title of GT

Answer 17

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By lemuel Gulliver. First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships

Question 18

paratext

Answer 18

the title , the portrait, the title page, the advertisement, a letter from Gulliver to cousin and –to the reader. = Title page + 3 texts

Question 19

The portrait in our edition = portrait in 1735 edition but in Frontispiece of 1726 edition = a portrait of Guliver and a phrasing line

Answer 19

“a spirit composed of right and duty mind’s recesses undefield a heart in generous honour steeped”

⇒ authority of Gulliver who is the “author”
⇒ Gulliver here looks like a gentleman : conveys authority and respectability.

Question 20

→ Thresholds
The Editorial myths surrounding the publication of the text

Answer 20

Swift believed and made a performance in believing that his first publisher had tampered with his text (into xv)

⇒ elements of truth and elements of performance, of theatre : of Swift playing the role of the writer hat has been done wrong with his editor = cf letter to cousin Simson

Question 21

The 3 texts following the frontispice : different even contradictory explanations as to the narrative and to the changes made to the narrative

Answer 21

• advertisement : the publisher’s collaborator “not rightly comprehending the scheme of the author” = misinterpretation
• Gulliver’s letter his cousin’s fear of censorship and legal troubles (“afraid of giving Offence” 7)

*The publisher to the reader : trimming lengthy and overly “circumstantial” descriptions : change the text to make it more palatable for the reader

Question 22

=> threshold play with the reader expectations : anonymously posted. The 3 texts :

Answer 22

• Mystification over authorship / replaying Swift’s own dismay about the 1st edition of the book. But this mystification is not really that important, not very important to know who wrote GE because we all know = Swift
  => But what is important : The Way Gulliver is introduced : an eccentric misanthropist

→ The Houyhnhnms VS the Yahoos : but we don’t know who they are : we are presented with Gulliver who prefer horse rather than human

• Letter “written in the language of the later disenchanted Gulliver” at the end of BK 4 : circular structure. Letter written in the same style at the fourth book. To understand what is at stake with the letter you have to read the entire book.

Question 23

2.2 Liliput : small (-minded people)
QUOTE

Answer 23

“I could not sufficiently wonder at the Intrepidity of these diminutive Mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk on my Body, while one of my Hands was at Liberty, without trembling at the very Sight of so prodigious a Creature as I must appear to them.” (I,1,20)

Question 24

2.2 Liliput : small (-minded people)

Answer 24

He could easily destroy their city but consider that he is duty bounds by the laws of hospitality

• a passive even submissive giant : 12 times taller even on his knees
  > Pleads the emperor on his knees for his liberty
  > I wore and subscribed to these articles with great Cheerfulness and content although some of them were not so honourable I, 3 38
  > On affable freak who entertains the populace and the court
• 2 great services to the Emperor of Lilliput
  > single-handedly seizing the Blefuscun fleet
  > extinguishing the fire that was about to destroy the imperial palace (I,5)

⇒ What will cause his downfall : ingratitude of the court with the emperor feeling humiliated that he urinated and the king humiliated that G refused to destroy
⇒ ridicule in both episode

Question 25

Liliput = Jean Vivies

Answer 25

the phonetic contraction of little + put (a fool, an idiot) = an island inhabited by people small in size and small minded in thought (Jean Vivies)

Question 26

2.3 Brobdingag : reversal

Answer 26

Book 1 and 2 = work together = a diptyque

→ In book 2 reversal of the physical relation of Gulliver with his people (from tiny to giant perception) therefore reversal of perspective

> I reflected what a Mortification it must prove to me to appear a inconsiderable in this Nation as one single lilliputian would be among us II, 1, 78

→ The question of relativity = recurring concern in BK 2
> Nothing is great or little otherwise than in comparison II, 1 78

→ Illustration
> End BK 1 : one of the Lilliputian sheep that G brought with him with him on board, devoured by the rats (tiny sheep VS big rats = relativity)
> 1st chap BK 2 : G’s “exploit” when battling against rats “the size of a large mastiff”, and defeating them which he presents as an “exploit” II,1,84
> Mock Heroic (cf the defeat of the Blefuscun fleet in BK 1)

⇒ discrepancy between what is described and how it is described.

Question 27

Mock Heroic

Answer 27

he character pretends that he is heroic but there is an element of ridicule

Question 28

2 main threads : Brobdingag

Answer 28

• Inevitable humiliations and his constant insecurity in the physical world of the giants : attacked by bees, rats, bird = similarity btw bk 1 and 2 : because of his size become something / someone of a freek. His main role= to entertain people who host him
• The long series of conversations between Gulliver and the king concerning gvt and society (absent from book 1)

Question 29

2.4 Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbudbrib : Hopeless worlds

Answer 29

• A rupture : more intellectual in tone, less focused on G’s adventures
  → Less an actor than an observer
  → A vector for swift’s satirical writing i.e. The character is “the instrument of what Swift show or says through him”. Allows him to target certain aspect of society
• Juxtaposition of diff places and diff topics : the target of satire keep changing : no logical articulation btw the 4 islands
  → The brutality of totalitarian rule (III,3 158)
  → The depraved folly at scientific researches (III, 4, 163-165) (academy of Lagados, excrements = edible)
  → The final terrifying vision of human decrepitude (physical, mental and moral) with the Stuldnrugg (III, 10, 197-1999) (= people who are aged but cannot die : vivid description of mental / physical effects)

*Common thread = debunking dreams of [human ] perfectibility → What matter = what they are ⇒ the descritpO of physical mental and moral decrepitude. in a sense, prepares us for what is to come : anything perfect must be other than humans

Question 30

2.5 The Houyhnhnms

Answer 30

*The discovery of the Houyhnhnms society and of the Yahoos : completely reject the human kind
=> An anthological shift = Gulliver accepts that he is a Yahoo

• YET everything is seen and judged from the Houyhnhnms perspective which Gulliver has adopted > an aporia
  > Gulliver reasons that because the Houyhnhnms are rational creatures, are superior beings
  > The Yahoos : inarticulate bruteds, without reason without language : therefore are incapable of learning

> If Gulliver is a Yahoo, how can he come to the conclusion that he is a Yahoo after having lengthy discussions with his Houyhnhnms master ? ⇒ How can he be a Yahoo if he talks and he reasons

*G’s Reasoning is proven (at least partially) incorrect when he is rescued at the end of Bk 4 by a portuguese captain
> They spoke to me with great humanity (IV, 11, 268) = exactly what he decided to reject. Yet those who show hospitality = the humans
> The captain offering him clothes (IV, 11,269) the only thing which distinguished G from the Yahoos who were akes (IV, 3, 220)

• Circular structure : TRAPPED in his faulty reasoning, living like an exile even when go back to his life.
  ⇒ He remains ashamed of being a Yahoo
  ⇒ the traveller has returned home and YET in a way he cannot return home : he is physically home and that’s it.