This study of "Gulliver's Travels" emphasizes the political significance of the text and explores the connection between Swift's narrative structure and his political philosophy. Focusing on the function of irony in the text it sheds light on both the novel's satire and its ideological themes, such as the attacks on corruption, imperialism and colonialism. Liz Bellamy argues that the relationship between the narrator and the reader in the novel is used by Swift to symbolize the relationship between the ruler and the ruled within the polity. But, beneath Swift's satiric portrayal of the British political system lies his ambiguous attitude to his native Ireland. As a member of the Anglo-Irish elite, Swift was neither English nor Irish and, like Gulliver, he always felt himself an observer in a foreign land. This approach to Gulliver's Travels stresses Swift's uncertainty about the nature of national identity and ideas of the primitive and the civilized.
- ISBN10 0745007589
- ISBN13 9780745007588
- Publish Date 1 September 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 February 1996
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pearson Education Limited
- Imprint Prentice-Hall
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 144
- Language English