Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, December 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The thesis examines the cultural and political significance of the formal and stylistic strategies in the work of Jonathan Swift; particularly the early prose satire A Tale of a Tub. Given his Irish origins and the largely colonial basis of England's relationship with Ireland, Swift's aesthetic strategies are shown to offer a mode of aesthetic resistance to, and interrogation of, English colonialism. In a rapidly modernising, secularising England national identity and social cohesion were being increasingly galvanised through an aesthetic ideology that emphasised the function of the aesthetic as that which can present a model of integration and shared values. Swift, drawing upon his experience of an Ireland socially fragmented by colonialism, emphasises the simultaneous, if contradictory, function of the aesthetic as the domain of the subjective imagination. An extreme wit, feared by Locke as that which will cause the individual subject to forget his or her social responsibilities, itself fragments society by encouraging the individual to inhabit an interiorised world of irrational associations. Swift, ostensibly satirising such behaviour in the Tale in the name of an English nationalism, actually allows the logic of such an extreme wit to dominate. Thus, he utilises what Vivian Mercier has shown to be the modes of traditional Irish literature, while simultaneously engaging with the (colonising, commercialising) ramifications of England's emergence into modernity. In the first, introductory chapter I explain, with reference to Swift's early life and work and to the critical work that already exists on Swift, why this thesis is a necessary addition to such a body of criticism. Chapter Two constitutes a closer examination of the Tale, the strategies of which are illuminated by a comparison with other works from the Anglo-Irish tradition: Burke, Swift's eighteenth-century Dublin biographers, the political economy of Sir Francis Brewster. Chapter Three turns to Swift's attempts to conform to English social and cultural modes in the first half of his career, particularly in The Examiner of 1710-11. The thesis returns to the idea of Swift as an Irish literary subverter in Chapter Four, this time by looking at the way the Tale and its companionpiece The Battle of the Books employ a form of 'extreme' allegory described by Walter Benjamin as essentially baroque in origin, and so able to adopt a critical position towards the early enlightenment principles of Swift's mentor and patron, Sir William Temple. Given that the category of the modem aesthetic emerges conceptually as a product of the enlightenment, Chapter Five examines Swift's work in the context of subsequent European enlightenment thinkers Kant and Herder, showing how Swift can be said to mediate their respective positions. The thesis concludes by arguing for Swift as, ultimately, a champion of reason; and goes on to point towards how Swift's aesthetic critique has resonances for our own contemporary situation: namely, how his early satirising of modem astrology is an early recognition of the unreason inherent in mass culture.

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D. in English)--University of California, Berkeley, Sept. 1969. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-247).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. Glossary: leaves 207-209. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-206).

One of the major problems for readers and students of A Tale of a Tub is its apparent lack of internal unity and coherence. Faced with a welter of seemingly contradictory and inconsistent arguments and attitudes, reader and student alike have frequently been forced to concede defeat and turn to Swift's "more profitable" works for consolation. The purpose of the present study has been to indicate the existence, in the Tale, of numerous unifying devices, a recognition of which may enable the reader to perceive and appreciate the essential unity and coherence of an admittedly complex literary entity. Emphasis has been primarily upon the "dramatic impact" of the Tale, and the contribution of images and themes to this impact. Classification of images and themes has been made in terms of the definitions offered in the text. Persuasive oratory is the instrument to achievement in the Tubbian world, and it is with the motives and methods of Tubbian orators that the study is primarily concerned. The pervasive themes of the mechanical operation of the spirit and madness are among the unifying devices in the Tale. The first seven chapters are devoted to an exploration of images, devices, and thematic developments as unifying devices. Four subsequent chapters discuss the relationships between elements in the Tale and certain of the cultural dissentions of which these elements provide reflections. There has been no attempt at inclusiveness in the selection of representative cultural elements. Rather, in the selection of materials from Hobbes, Dryden, Wycherley, Sprat, the Cambridge Platonists, Glanvill, and Shaftesbury, the attempt has been only to indicate the major preoccupations of the age. Where obvious similarities exist between attitudes, as they do between the attitudes of Hobbes and those of the scientific virtuosi, the emphasis is upon Swift's capacity to make fine distinctions between similar attitudes and to indicate these distinctions in his methods of attack. Conversely, the inclusion of apparently disparate "philosophies," such as those of Hobbes and Shaftesbury, is intended to demonstrate Swift's ability to comprehend in one attack a great variety of disparate attitudes. It has been found necessary, in the interests of clarity, to include a certain amount of explanation and elaboration of materials relative to the cultural background. The conclusion of the study is primarily concerned with the reader's reaction to the "dramatic impact" of the Tale. Certain of Swift's "satiric criteria" or norms are tentatively offered for consideration. These are such as may be readily available to the reader from a careful examination of the text and an exploration of his own reaction to the text. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Christopher Hodgkins, Karen L. Kilcup; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-31, p. 64).

This study examines and also evaluates the literary sources of Gulliver's Travels.

Swift appears in many of his poems either in his o person or behind a poetic mask which does little to conceal his identity. The poems contain Swift's view of his own character. Even in the poems addressed to others, the most important subject is Swift himself. This study is divided into chapters which examine the various roles Swift assumed in both his private and public lives. Following a brief introduction are two chapters of more interest than significance. The first of these is concerned with poems on Swift as a houseguest. These poems frequently relate the difficulties Swift's eccentric behavior caused his hosts. The second deals with poems on Swift's relationships with friends such as Thomas Sheridan and Patrick Delany, as well as with a public adversary, Jonathan Smedley.