FIRST PAPER

STUDENT' S AND ACUTE' S NAME: Maria Vanessa Monsalve Tarazaga

TITLE OF THE PAPER: Political and social criticism in Gulliver's travels.

AUTHOR OR TOPIC: Jonathan Swift

ABSTRACT OR SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH IN NOT MORE THAN 100 TO MAX. 150

WORDS:

Jonathan Swift, in his book "Gulliver's travels" shows a satiric and ironic sense of humour

in describing the main character's visits to imaginary countries in order to criticize the political,

social and religious context of the 18th century.

Gulliver travels to four extraordinary places, this thematic structure is expressed bye viewing

humanity from four different standpoints: his voyage to Lilliput is a retort of the British Court,

with their inhabitants confronted by two ideologic aspects: religion and politics. In his second

visit, Gulliver arrives to the giant's country, where the human race appears coarse and callous.

The third is an island inhabited by absurdly impractical scientists, so Gulliver views human

behaviour through the eyes of common sense and sees the gift of reason everywhere misured,

either for playing futile intellectual games or exploiting other people. Finally, the fourth is a

country governed by rational horses, which sees the whole human race as irrational and bestial.

AUTO-EVALUACION: Matríula de Honor

Academic year 1998/1999

12 Marzo 1999