What Not To Do: Learning by Example in the Republic and Gulliver's Travels

Through aesthetic techniques, Plato’s The Republic and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels provide the reader with efferent knowledge, benefitting the reader’s understanding of the entirety of each text. Plato and Swift employ form, characterization, and the theme of vision to challenge readers to find meaning by asking for reader involvement, making the reader an essential part of the text in order for the texts’ lessons to be completed. Additionally, the comprehension of Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels requires attention not only to the tools acquired in Parts I-III, but also to the learning experiences of Republic. These texts are not straightforward arguments for the perfect society, but carefully crafted exercises designed for the reader.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

Texas State University-San Marcos

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Fitzgerald, Keri L.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Skerpan-Wheeler, Elizabeth

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Raphael, Rebecca

• Plato
• Swift
• republic
• Gulliver's travels
• transactional
• efferent
• aesthetic
• reading

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/3168

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/3168