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Chapter 17 - Pamphleteering and Political Journalism

from Part IV - Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2024

By
J. A. Downie
Edited by
Joseph Hone  and
Pat Rogers
Joseph Hone
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Pat Rogers
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
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Summary

Swift was one of the most prolific pamphleteers and journalists of his lifetime. One of Swift’s great strengths as a pamphleteer was his keen awareness of what might be described as his target readership. Appreciating that it is easier to confirm rather than alter readers’ opinions, Swift played on the prejudices of his readership. This chapter untangles the numerous and varied polemical strategies that Swift harnessed in his political writing, including ‘parallel history’, hyperbole, and character assassination. The chapter concludes with an extended reading of A Modest Proposal (1729), suggesting that here Swift employed many of the same polemical devices that he had used during his years as a pamphleteer.

Keywords

Jonathan Swiftpamphletsjournalism
Type
Chapter
Information
Jonathan Swift in Context , pp. 132 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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