Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Irish Anglican cleric, essayist, and satirist whose works include Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal.
Satire: A literary mode that exposes folly or vice through ridicule, irony, or exaggeration. Swift used ridicule and exaggeration to attack political corruption, social cruelty, and human pretension.
Gulliver’s Travels: A 1726 prose satire by Jonathan Swift about Lemuel Gulliver’s voyages to imaginary societies. Its invented worlds let Swift examine politics, science, war, and human nature through comic estrangement.
John Gay: An English poet and playwright best known for The Beggar’s Opera. Gay shared Swift’s literary circle and collaborated with him on satirical projects.
Scriblerus Club: An early eighteenth-century literary circle that included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot. The club’s shared satire of false learning and literary pretension grew from Swift’s collaborations.
Daniel Defoe: An English writer and journalist whose works include Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Defoe’s realistic fiction offers a different route from Swift’s openly fantastic and satirical narratives.
Anglicanism: A Christian tradition that developed from the Church of England and includes churches worldwide. Swift’s career as an Anglican priest shaped his public authority and religious polemics.
A Modest Proposal: A 1729 satirical pamphlet by Jonathan Swift that proposes selling poor Irish children as food. Its shocking economic argument condemns the treatment of Ireland’s poor and the indifference of elites.
John Arbuthnot: A Scottish physician, writer, and satirist associated with the Scriblerus Club. Arbuthnot joined Swift, Pope, and Gay in a circle that mocked contemporary learning and literature.
Irish Patriotism: Political advocacy for Irish interests and greater autonomy within or from British rule. Swift’s Irish pamphlets became enduring texts of resistance to economic and political subordination.
Joseph Addison: An English essayist, poet, and politician who co-founded The Spectator with Richard Steele. Addison’s urbane periodical essays contrast with Swift’s more aggressive political and religious satire.