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This study investigates the nature of myths and mythmaking specifically related to the poetic and biographical myths generated by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and his biographers and critics. The study additionally investigates Swift's varied utilization of myths and the techniques of mythology.The primary material used for this investigation is Swift's verse. The secondary material is Swiftian biography and criticism. The matter within the verse reveals the poetic myth(s) and the matter of the biography-criticism reveals the biographical myth(s). The poetic myth proved characteristically consistent in illustrating the poet's philosophy and poetic intent. The biographical myth, on the other hand, proved characteristically confusing, illustrating opposing and questionable theories.Chapter One defines myth and provides some purposes for myths. This chapter also describes the dual nature of the Swiftian myths created by both the poetic views and the biographical views. This chapter also delineates Swift's use of myth as a poetic vehicle and identifies the major myths selected for investigation.Chapter two investigates the myth of birth and troubled childhood. The question of paternity and the unknown origin of the species are investigated as these are related to both biological and mythic man. The paternity of Swift, as biological man, is still disputed. Is he the son of Jonathan Swift, Sr.? Or is he the bastard of a Temple? In the poetic myth, Swift provides the answer: "No man knows." As mythic man, however, Swift gains two fathers: God (as he takes Holy Orders) and Apollo (as he realizes himself a poet). An understanding of Swift's concept of mythic man is given then to illustrate how Swift developed his complex persona device.Chapter Three investigates the myth of love complications and the love triangle: Swift-Stella-Vanessa. This chapter also investigates Swift's placement of women in his poetry and life, his views on marriage, and his philosophy of love illustrated by the poetry.Chapter Four investigates the myth of the inferior poet. Three major influences are: (1) the John Dryden (1631-1700) influence: (2) the influence of Swift's Billingsgate rhetoric (which also generated theories on scatology and the myth of disordered behavior); and (3) Swift's self-portrayals.Chapter Five draws the conclusions and points out that although the major purpose of this study was to identify and investigate Swiftian biographical myths in the light of the poetic myth(s), rather than to dispel any of the biographical myths, that the poetic matter, nevertheless, tends to dispel many of the biographical myths.This study makes several contributions to Swiftian scholarship: (1) an identification of the grandmother and, schoolboy images which increase the scanty material for the study of Swift, the child; (2) an understanding of Swift's development of his unique persona device; (3) an analysis of the Cadenus anagram and its significance to "Cadenus and Vanessa;" (4) An identification of Strephon as Sheridan in the Strephon-Chloe-Celia poems and the poetic intent of these poems; and (5) an understanding of Swift's Billingsgate rhetoric as appropriate to his poetic purpose. Of greater significance, this study identifies some of the biographical myths and provides a close study of a large selection of Swift's poems that are related to those myths.

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.

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.

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University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

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