Higgins, Ian (1989) The sentiments of a Church-of-England man : a study of Swift's politics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview

PDF WRAP_THESIS_Higgins_1989.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (33Mb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This contextualist study re-examines the contested critical
question of Jonathan Swift's political character. It is
concerned with the historical meaning of Swift's texts
and attempts to recover their original political impact.
Politically-literate contemporaries claimed to read Jacobite
Tory politics in Swift's texts. Rather than dismiss the
judgement of Swift's contemporaries, this study asks whether
there is anything about Swift's political writing in polemical
context that could have led contemporaries to construe
the politics of his texts as Jacobite Tory. The conclusion
this study reaches is that aspects of Swift's political
rhetoric are consonant with Tory and Jacobite polemic.
While contesting current conceptions of Swift as a Whig,
this study offers a partial revision of that scholarship
which describes Swift as a non-Jacobite Tory.
The thesis is based on an analysis of Swift's prose, poetry
and correspondence and contemporary (mainly printed) sources
books, pamphlets, poems on affairs of state and newspapers.
Some new or neglected polemical contexts and analogues
for Swift's works are suggested. Chapter 1 considers some
of the problems and contested issues in interpretation
of Swift's political biography and writing. Chapter 2
witnesses Swift's combination of High Church attitudes
with a radical political critique of Whig establishment.
Swift is read in juxtaposition with Jacobite Tory authors
such as George Granville, Lord Lansdowne. Chapter 3 relocates
A Tale of a Tub in historical context to reveal the satire's
relation to High Church Tory polemical languages. Chapter
4 discusses the disaffected Tory aspect of Gulliver's
Travels. Chapter 5 attempts to register the complexity
of the textual evidence of Swift's attitude to Jacobitism.
Detailed attention is given to his politically-revealing
attitudes to the Dutch. A coda briefly describes Swift's
discontent with the Revolution settlement, examines this
Church-of-England Man's sentiments on the crucial ideological
issue of resistance, and suggests the importance of Hugo
Grotius in Swift's political thought.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 -- Political and social views, Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 -- Criticism and interpretation, English literature -- 18th century -- Political aspects, Politics in literature
Official Date:	December 1989
Dates:	Date Event December 1989 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Rawson, Claude Julien ; Mezciems, Jenny
Sponsors:	British Council ; La Trobe University. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Extent:	vii, 447 leaves
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads