The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729)
This article reads A Modest Proposal from the darker side of the westernised/anglicised Enlightenment. Firstly, it critically engages with the proclivity within the Anglocentric academy to celebrate English language literary figures associated with “The Enlightenment” in Ireland without a questionin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Estudios Irlandeses |
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| Online Access: | https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2_Eoin-O-Cuinneagain_DEFF.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797384595305398272 |
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| author | EOIN Ó CUINNEAGÁIN |
| author_facet | EOIN Ó CUINNEAGÁIN |
| author_sort | EOIN Ó CUINNEAGÁIN |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article reads A Modest Proposal from the darker side of the westernised/anglicised Enlightenment. Firstly, it critically engages with the proclivity within the Anglocentric academy to celebrate English language literary figures associated with “The Enlightenment” in Ireland without a questioning of their role in the colonial project and in shaping its discourses of racism and sexism. Secondly, it focuses on how, from an Irish decolonial perspective, Jonathan Swift can be understood as a manager of the colonial racial/patriarchal matrix of power. Thirdly, it argues that the satire written by Jonathan Swift should be understood as an Anglocentric geo-cultural category and may be understood as westernised/anglicised Enlightenment satire. Finally, A Modest Proposal is analysed in terms of the exceptionality principle of irony, Swift’s project of improvement and salvation of the colonised, and modernity/coloniality’s rhetorical promise yet inability to solve the problems it produces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:37:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3223fd97a9684df09a632ddd4d3913aa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1699-311X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:37:54Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Estudios Irlandeses |
| spelling | doaj.art-3223fd97a9684df09a632ddd4d3913aa2023-12-20T16:59:23ZengAsociación Española de Estudios IrlandesesEstudios Irlandeses1699-311X2023-12-0118.218.2112712110The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729)EOIN Ó CUINNEAGÁIN0 Linnaeus University, Sweden This article reads A Modest Proposal from the darker side of the westernised/anglicised Enlightenment. Firstly, it critically engages with the proclivity within the Anglocentric academy to celebrate English language literary figures associated with “The Enlightenment” in Ireland without a questioning of their role in the colonial project and in shaping its discourses of racism and sexism. Secondly, it focuses on how, from an Irish decolonial perspective, Jonathan Swift can be understood as a manager of the colonial racial/patriarchal matrix of power. Thirdly, it argues that the satire written by Jonathan Swift should be understood as an Anglocentric geo-cultural category and may be understood as westernised/anglicised Enlightenment satire. Finally, A Modest Proposal is analysed in terms of the exceptionality principle of irony, Swift’s project of improvement and salvation of the colonised, and modernity/coloniality’s rhetorical promise yet inability to solve the problems it produces.https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2_Eoin-O-Cuinneagain_DEFF.pdfdecolonialjonathan swifta modest proposalenlightenmentmodernity/colonialityirishcoloniality of being |
| spellingShingle | EOIN Ó CUINNEAGÁIN The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) Estudios Irlandeses decolonial jonathan swift a modest proposal enlightenment modernity/coloniality irish coloniality of being |
| title | The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) |
| title_full | The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) |
| title_fullStr | The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) |
| title_short | The Darker Side of Jonathan Swift: On the Coloniality of Being in A Modest Proposal (1729) |
| title_sort | darker side of jonathan swift on the coloniality of being in a modest proposal 1729 |
| topic | decolonial jonathan swift a modest proposal enlightenment modernity/coloniality irish coloniality of being |
| url | https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2_Eoin-O-Cuinneagain_DEFF.pdf |
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