Swift's parody / Robert Phiddian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phiddian, Robert, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 26.

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 26

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745--Technique.

Swift, Jonathan.

English language--18th century--Rhetoric.

English language.

Parodies--History and criticism.

Parodies.

Parody.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 221 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. [204]-216) and index.

ISBN:

9781139085854

1139085859

9780511834967

0511834969

9780511519086

0511519087

Publisher Number:

2027/heb07555 hdl