The meaning and significance of Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels is elusive, and ephemeral, evading easy description. ... The reader is given a choice between sailing off on Gullivers sea of fancy, or delving into his narrative in search of that legendary hidden treasure, the truth. The significance of the work lies in Swifts ability to distract his readers from their detached enjoyment and draw them fanatically into the quest for meaning. ... Rodino shows in his article "Splendide Mendax": Authors, Characters and Readers in Gullivers Travels, criticism of Gulliver is never a straightforward enterprise. ... the reader is invited to play at least three roles: docile interpreter of Gullivers authorial intentions; metacritic of Gullivers motives and strategies; and metametacritic of Swift, who glimpses the levels and loops of textuality in which the Travels other readers, authors, and characters are situated. ... (1)
Gullivers Travels provides a literary kaleidoscope, where the constant shifting and recombination of perspectives replaces authoritative closure with an emphasis on individual reader responsibility. ... "(2)
On the surface, Gullivers reading of Brobdingnagian literature, and especially Glumdalclitchs "little old Treatise" on Brobdingnagian morality, appears unremarkable. ... We rely on Gulliver to transmit the Brobdingnagian text to us, but it is up to the individual reader to decide how much weight to give to Gullivers mediation. ... Swifts appeal to his readers subconscious prejudices is a remarkable precursor to modern psycho-analysis, over one hundred and fifty years before Freud! In viewing our reversed image in this early psycho-analytic mirror, the reader is clearly invited to look through a glass darkly, peering for reflections of his or her own soul, as well as Gullivers and Swifts. ... " The reader is forced to seriously question the ethical repercussions of such morals, and their utility for everyday life, searching not only for their own responses, but Gullivers, Swifts, and the Brobdingnagians as well.
Looking for Gullivers apparent authorial intention, the reader finds that Gulliver is not actually interested in the conclusions of his source: "the Author drew several moral Applications useful in the Conduct of Life, but needless here to repeat. ... " Recognising that Gulliver and Swift are also "drawing Lectures" is only the first step into the hall-of-mirrors that Gullivers Travels creates. The effect of this hyper-reflectivity is superbly described in Richard Rodinos article:
Gullivers more pressing complaint, that the book quarrels with the author of humanity, also rings true - at least until we realise that Gullivers quarrel repeats the treatises.
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