European University Institute Library

Swift's parody, Robert Phiddian

eng

index present

non fiction

Swift's parody

electronic resource

dictionaries

558428336

Robert Phiddian

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought, 26ACLS Humanities E-BookCambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Jonathan Swift's prose has been discussed extensively as satire, but its major structural element, parody, has not received the attention it deserves. Focusing mainly on works before 1714, and especially on A Tale of a Tub, this study explores Swift's writing primarily as parody. Robert Phiddian follows the constructions and deconstructions of textual authority through the texts on cultural-historical, biographical, and literary-theoretical levels. The historical interest lies in the occasions of the parodies: in their relations with the texts and discourses which they quote and distort, and in the way this process reflects on the generation of cultural authority in late Stuart England. The biographical interest lies in a new way of viewing Swift's early career as a potentially Whiggish intellectual. The theoretical and interpretative interest lies in tracing the play of language and irony through parody.--, Provided by publisher

1. Theoretical orientations. Three theories of quotation. The idea of parody under erasure. Illegitimate textuality: the pre-texts of Swiftian parody -- 2. Restoration enterprises and their rhetorics. The burden of the past and a definition of restoration enterprise. The restoration of true religion. The ordering of scientific language and method. Restoration enterprises in other realms of culture. The structure of political ideology and discourse. The sphere of orthodox utterance -- 3. Parody and the play of stigma in pamphlet warfare. Intertextual insults: political debate and the sin of faction. Defoe's Shortest Way With Dissenters: encoded triggers to parodic reading. Swift and Collins: the play of parodic stigma -- 4. The problem of anarchic parody: An Argument against Abolishing Christianity. Parody as homily: the pious solution. Overdetermined silences: problems with the pious solution. The Argument as an essay in Shaftesburian ridicule