Jonathan Swift: The Fictions of Satirist

Much has been written of Swift and his principal satires. But one aspect of his art has received surprisingly little attention, namely his satirical deployment of fictions, which more than anything else endeared him to early readers.Jonathan Swift: The Fictions of the Satirist. Against the current tendency to stress the relationship between the work and the life of the man or his age, J.-P. Forster explores how the great Augustan satirist uses various simple fictional devices to produce effects which lend his satires a subtlety that irony and rhetoric could never achieve by themselves. He argues that it is these fictional devices that have allowed his satires to survive the test of time. A close examination of the well-known and not so well-known satires demonstrates that Swift's constant concern with the relationship of text to reader played a crucial role in his choice and handling of fiction. It also suggests that his conception of imagination, more important to an understanding of his work than generally assumed, is as problematic as his conception of reason.

About the Author :
The Author: Jean-Paul Forster teaches English language and literature in Lausanne. He is the author of various articles on Herbert, Swift, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, Auden. In 1975 he published a study on Robert Graves et la dualité du réel.

Review :
«This is a most pragmatic and useful study, offering a unique and perceptive reading of Swift's works, with no desire on Forster's part to employ one overriding critical view at the expense of others. ...this effectively crafted and organized study adds a most important and impressive piece of criticism to a rather long list of works devoted to Swift and his writings... Highly recommended to anyone interested in Swift and 18th-century satire.» (R.G. Brown, Choice) «Toute l'étude se faufile entre philosophie, écriture, narratologie et histoire sans jamais tomber dans la déformation ou l'utilisation frauduleuse de l'une ou de l'autre. On peut se féliciter que ce livre ait pris Swift pour objet: 'Gulliver' est un livre si connu, Swift un écrivain si moderne par tant d'aspects, que l'analyse peut déployer toute sa subtilité en utilisant des références connues dont elle tire le maximum. ... L'ensemble, de très bonne tenue, explique bien pourquoi 'Gulliver' demeure essentiel: des générations successives de lecteurs y retrouvent une alliance tonique de la lucidité et de l'invention comique.» (M. Baridon, Dix-Huitième Siècle)