"I TO LAUGH, AND YOU (GROW WISE)": JONATHAN SWIFT'S UNMAKING OF MYTHS AND SATIRE ABOUT WOMEN

Abstract

This thesis explores how Jonathan Swift negotiates his culture’s misogynist beliefs about women in his satirical poetry on women. Using a broadly formalist analysis rather than the biographical approach favoured in many studies of Swift, it argues that even as he affirms some misogynist beliefs of his milieu, Swift engages in a broadly protofeminist project. The first chapter discusses how Swift consciously undermines the myth of the ideal woman, as well as the myth of the vacuous woman. The second chapter focuses on the times when, instead of rescuing women from myths, Swift deliberately portrays them as trapped within physically and psychically damaging lifestyles as a result of the overarching ideology that myths support. Finally, the third chapter delves into Swift’s response to the phallocentric premise of satire itself: he identifies his poiesis with women and deconstructs the gendered power differential inherent in satire about women written by men. By analysing well-known poems like the scatological group alongside more minor pieces such as the Market Hill poems, this thesis aims to provide a relatively comprehensive image of Swift’s engagement with gender, and posit a more complex view of Swift the poet.