Literature Review

Jonathan Swift, one of the most famous writers in English literature, has been studied by many scholars from different perspectives, especially from his use of satire. And his master piece Gulliver#8217;s Travels has been mainly analyzed from the perspective of satire, themes, characters, black humor and its literary status.

Some scholars considered the story as a satirical way to show the author#8217;s anger and discontent with the society.

Romana Rouf Chowdhury noted that satire can be regarded as an essential device to bring out the author#8217;s thought. Through Gulliver#8217;s Travels, Swift attempted to satirize the proud eighteenth century population who were too proud of the rapid scientific progress.（5）He pointed out that Gulliver#8217;s first voyage to Lilliput satirized the littleness of human beings. The second trip to Brobdingnag is a satire on the meanness of humanity, and the voyage to the flying islands is a satire on scientists and philosophers while the final stands for his contempt for the denunciation of human species. Chen Jun analyzed the use of satiric techniques in Gulliver#8217;s Travels such as innuendo, irony, hyperbole and comparison. He concluded that the sharp satire is the main artistic characteristic and soul of the book and through which he successfully revealed the evil and ugly of England society and ridiculed the England rulers. ” As a distinguished satirist, Jonathan Swift and his masterpieces have a great influence on English literature, and he is almost unsurpassed in literature.” (188) Wu Houkai spoke highly of Swift and his Gulliver#8217;s Travels, and he thought that Swift made a perfect combination of the two elements of epic, namely, the marvelous and the verisimilitude. Gulliver#8217;s Travels integrates various satiric techniques including innuendo, irony, hyperbole, comparison, parody and son, in particular it fully represented Swift#8217;s unique use of ambiguity. (7)

Some other critics regarded Swift as the pioneer of black humor literature and thought Gulliver#8217;s Travels was one of the typical works of black humor.

Huang Yan and Ding Liming stated that according to ”Ci Hai”, humor is, by the means of exaggeration, allegory, irony and parody, to reveal the absurdness and unreasonableness of life. As a kind of humor, it is the same with black humor. One of the specialty of Gulliver#8217;s Travels is that the author used many techniques like parody and exaggeration to combine fabled plots, imaginary stories and satire on the reality and society, so profound and thought-provoking as to reach the unity of ”black” and ”humorous”. They thought that Swift created a writing method that combines black humor and satire, which had great influence on writers including Joseph Heller. (2) When talked about Swift and his ”black humor”, Ping Hong considered that although misunderstood by his contemporary, Swift provided new clues for people in the 20^th century to know the world. The cruel reality compelled people to view the world in a new way, a way that Swift viewed the world 200 years ago. In a sense, society has become more and more absurd, in which human has become the victim and their existence became meaningless. Black humor writers helped people deal with the threat of destroying themselves just in a way that Swift revealed the barbarity of the ruling class. (96) Huang Yan compared Gulliver#8217;s Travels and the black humor works Catch-22, and concluded that Swift creates not a tragedy but a series of comic and funny travels. Swift once said, ”I give all possible way to Amusements, because they preserve my Temper as exercise does my healthy, and without healthy and good humor I had rather be a dog.” Huang thought that ”Swift creates the famous novel Gulliver#8217;s Travels in which the English blackness was so made fun of that the perceived concept of black humor was obtained.” （52）

The most controversial part is the fourth travel to Houyhnhnms, in which many critics doubted that Swift showed complete hatred and depression towards humanity. But other critics didn#8217;t think so. Shane herron stated that ”Swift does not simply equate humanity with Yahoos, brutes who lack the sense of any difference between the right and the wrong. Rather, he suggests that unlike the Yahoos, humanity does possess a faculty of rational choice or will, guided by an intuitive sense of right and wrong.”（8）Moreover, some scholars also studied the main characters. Guo Haiying analyzed the social identity and ethic identity of Gulliver, and he considered that Gulliver#8217;s worship for Houyhnhnms was a kind of criticism for himself, which caused psychological conflicts. And such conflicts were closely connected with social changes in England in the 18^th century, leading to the alienation of Gulliver himself.（2）