Politics and Literature in the Age of Swift
English and Irish Perspectives

A wide range of new approaches to Swift's literary and political achievement in its English and Irish contexts.

Claude Rawson (Edited by)

9780521190152, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 May 2010

312 pages, 9 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'Politics and Literature is illuminated by rich essays from distinguished scholars.' Charles A. Knight, The Scriblerian

Jonathan Swift was the most influential political commentator of his time, in both England and Ireland. His writings are a major source for historians of the eighteenth century, as well as including some of the greatest works of satire in verse and prose. This volume presents wide-ranging new perspectives on Swift's literary and political achievement in its English and Irish contexts, bringing together some of the most energetic current scholarship on the subject in both historical and literary studies. The essays consider Swift's attitude to Dissenters, his relationship with Walpole, and his place in, and understanding of, the political demography of colonial Ireland. They also examine Swift's poems and pamphlets, and his hoaxes and satires, showing his extraordinary versatility in a wide variety of genres. Full of original insights, this volume offers a rich and important new treatment of Swift's central role in eighteenth-century political and literary culture.

Preface Claude Rawson
Part I. The Political Swift 1 (England): 1. Jonathan Swift's political confession Ian Higgins
2. Situating Swift's politics in 1701 Mark Goldie
3. Swift and Walpole Paul Langford
Part II. The Writer and His World: 4. Burying the fanatic partridge: Swift's Holy Week hoax Valerie Rumbold
5. Swift and the art of political publication: hints and title pages, 1711–14 James McLaverty
6. Swift's poetics of friendship Helen Deutsch
7. 'Now deaf 1740': entrapment, foreboding, and exorcism in late Swift David Womersley
8. Savage indignation revisited: Swift, Yeats, and the 'cry' of liberty Claude Rawson
Part III. The Political Swift 2 (Ireland): 9. 'Paltry Underlings of State'? The character and aspirations of the 'Castle' Party, 1715–32 D. W. Hayton
10. Old English, New English and Ancient Irish: Swift and the Irish past Sean Connolly
11. Jonathan Swift and the Irish Colonial Project Robert Mahony
Index.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]