Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. For
ten years he served as secretary to Sir William Temple, a prominent English
statesman, and was ordained in 1694. His first major satirical work,
A Tale of a Tub, appeared in 1704. In the 1720s,
Swift, along with Alexander Pope and John Gay, formed a group of Tory satirists
known as the Scriblerians. His 1724 satire on the English plan to introduce
debased coinage into Ireland, The Drapier's Letters,
elevated him to an Irish patriot. Gulliver's Travels
followed in 1726, and “A Modest Proposal,” his grotesque satire on the twin
Irish problems of overpopulation and food shortage, appeared in 1729. Swift
passed the last years of his life in ill health and died in 1745.
Sites about Jean-Paul Sartre:
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This biography on the Incompetech Web site is a fun and interesting read. Don't
skip the footnotes!
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For a quick read about Swift, check out this biography from Spectrum
school magazine.
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This biography is liberally sprinkled with excerpts from Swift's work that help
us see what he thought of the events being described.
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Swift is one of Hertford College's most famous alumni; read this biography from
Swift's Oxford alma mater.
The Web is full of satirical sites that will have you chuckling at your
computer screen. The three listed below are only a small sample of what is
available, and each is presented in the same manner as "legitimate" online news
magazines and Web sites. Look through them all (don’t let your laughter distract
you too much!) and do one of the writing assignments listed below.
The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/index
Satire Wire:
http://www.satirewire.com/index.shtml
The National Post Online:
http://www.nationalpost.8m.com/
Why satire? Does it get the point across better than more straightforward
writing? Do humor, sarcasm, and irony help the writer make his or her case?
Choose a satirical piece from one of the sites listed above, and explain how the
use of satire makes the piece better or worse at tackling its particular issue.
Write a your own satirical news story. Choose people and topics in the news
today, and make your story as realistic as possible.
In the manner of Swift in "A Modest Proposal," propose a satirical solution to a
common problem. Keep in mind that Swift doesn't just write a funny essay, he
calls attention to a particular dilemma and makes us think twice about how we
respond to important issues.
Look through the Molly Ivins pages on this site and read some of her columns. Is
Ivins a satirist? Why or why not? Use examples from her essays to argue your
case.
Each of the following essays takes on a topic in a rather serious manner,
exploring the issue and arguing for a certain perspective.
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Tom Regan, "The Case for Animal Rights" (Regular, 696; Shorter, 376)
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Adrienne Rich, "Taking Women Students Seriously" (Regular, 482; Shorter 258)
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Carl Cohen, "The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research" (Regular,
707)
Choose one of these essays and rewrite it in a satirical manner à la Swift.
Then exchange papers with a classmate who has read the original. Which is more
convincing: the original essay or the satires you two have produced? Which voice
are you more apt to listen to? Why?