Jonathan Swift

Tina Ta

- invasion of Ireland made Swift flee to England
- supported Anglican Church
- greatest political journalist of the day
- 1724 leader of Irish resistance to English oppression
- Had Meniere’s disease- affects inner ear by causing dizziness, nausea, and deafness
- Master of prose; style involves concrete diction, simple syntax, avoids “flowery” diction
- wrote satires
- Author of Gulliver’s Travels
- opposes the view that human nature is fundamentally good

(Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol C)