Jonathan Swift’s Utopian and Dystopian Worlds
Notes on Jonathan Swift’s utopian and dystopian worlds
Constantin Manea Maria-Camelia Manea University of Piteşti Abstract: The present paper‟s aim is to substantiate the features of novelty that Swift generated in English and
(indirectly) in world literature, with regard to the use of utopian and dystopian elements within the broader scope of satire. Jonathan Swift‟s satirical prose, which was meant to ridicule human vices and flaws, as well as a number of highly topical issues, considered with irony or sarcasm, chose variegated targets – all external objects and facts, not abstract entities , as the satirist must exaggerate and distort reality, and so the satirical literary product can be said to be referential, while allegory supports the complexity of the message. The author‟s analytic, critical tendency does not essentially clash with the order-seeking intellect. He generates “parallel universes”, inhabited by grotesque beings and illogical realities, yet this cannot be done without the characteristic traits of a world delineated with powerful objectivity. Swift‟s “dramatic satire” led to the creation of his anti-utopias / dystopias, which are essentially fruitful, and thus capable of generating an undeniable curative function. Key-words: utopia, dystopia, satire, narrative, irony, allegory
Introduction. The main contention of the present paper does not concern (general) questions of literary history so much as the analytic identification of the modern source of dystopian writing in the world (not only in the English-speaking world). The functional load of Swift‟s satire was not intellectually limited, in the classical manner of older allegorical criticism, but fully provable in the hermeneutic terms of the modern analysis of the literary discourse. The 18th century, an era characterized by both rationalistic and sentimental leanings, was preeminently the century of common-sense, relying on wisdom derived from practical activities. This is the age when
Constantin Manea Maria-Camelia Manea University of Piteşti Abstract: The present paper‟s aim is to substantiate the features of novelty that Swift generated in English and
(indirectly) in world literature, with regard to the use of utopian and dystopian elements within the broader scope of satire. Jonathan Swift‟s satirical prose, which was meant to ridicule human vices and flaws, as well as a number of highly topical issues, considered with irony or sarcasm, chose variegated targets – all external objects and facts, not abstract entities , as the satirist must exaggerate and distort reality, and so the satirical literary product can be said to be referential, while allegory supports the complexity of the message. The author‟s analytic, critical tendency does not essentially clash with the order-seeking intellect. He generates “parallel universes”, inhabited by grotesque beings and illogical realities, yet this cannot be done without the characteristic traits of a world delineated with powerful objectivity. Swift‟s “dramatic satire” led to the creation of his anti-utopias / dystopias, which are essentially fruitful, and thus capable of generating an undeniable curative function. Key-words: utopia, dystopia, satire, narrative, irony, allegory
Introduction. The main contention of the present paper does not concern (general) questions of literary history so much as the analytic identification of the modern source of dystopian writing in the world (not only in the English-speaking world). The functional load of Swift‟s satire was not intellectually limited, in the classical manner of older allegorical criticism, but fully provable in the hermeneutic terms of the modern analysis of the literary discourse. The 18th century, an era characterized by both rationalistic and sentimental leanings, was preeminently the century of common-sense, relying on wisdom derived from practical activities. This is the age when
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