Colonial shorthand: Swift, the ascendancy, and internal Colonialism

This study challenges the contemporary critical picture of Swift as anti- colonialist. Combining historical research with discursive and rhetorical analyses of heretofore neglected primary sources, I focus on the colonial assumptions underlying Swift's tracts, sermons, and correspondence. Though Swift often opposed English policy in Ireland, his membership in Ireland's governing class (the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy), and more specifically his devotion to the Church of Ireland, implicate him directly in England's domination of Irish life. Drawing on post-colonial theory, I argue that colonialism's effects on Swift are seen most clearly in the language he shared with other members of the Ascendancy, a shorthand that allowed him to equate Ascendancy interests with Irish interests, all the while ignoring the Catholic majority.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Canning, Rick G.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dussinger, John A.

• Literature, English

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1994 Canning, Rick G.

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9512315
(UMI)AAI9512315

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22224