Locating the voice of the author in a piece of satire can be difficult as there can be numerous levels of discourse. The initial assumption when looking at Swift’s work is that the author is suffering from the anxieties towards women which he is displaying in his male characters. In attempting to locate Swift’s voiceContinue reading “Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 5: The Satiric Focus”
Tag Archives: feminism
Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 4: The Anxious Swift
Jonathan Swift joined in with the commentary on female independence in a series of poems which demonstrate male anxiety towards feminine privacy, ‘The poems ‘A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed’ and ‘The Progress of Beauty’ use dressing room scenes to debunk the concept of beauty foregrounded in their titles and to offer narratives ofContinue reading “Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 4: The Anxious Swift”
Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 3: The Psychological Context
Epicurus. Epicurus proposed that the universe was made up of two states of being; forms and voids. These two states make up everything and are opposites but equal. The form is solid and the void is the gaps which solids move into. The void is not the absence of form and it is not nothing,Continue reading “Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 3: The Psychological Context”
Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 2: The Cultural Context
Privacy was a highly valued commodity in eighteenth-century England and was normally invested in a locked cabinet or private closetin the house to which only the male head of the household had access. Samuel Johnson defined the cabinet in his Dictionary of the English Language as a ‘private box’ in which valuable things are hiddenContinue reading “Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 2: The Cultural Context”
Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 1: The Progress of Privacy
Women in England in the eighteenth century experienced a degree of privacy and independence they had not had before. This independence was explored in contemporary literature, especially in the works of Jonathan Swift. Swift’s attitudes towards women have been the subject of much debate, with his personal correspondence and poetry analysed and evaluated in detailContinue reading “Castration Anxiety in Jonathan Swift 1: The Progress of Privacy”
Beyond the Underground 