Jonathan Swift
Subtitle: the Irish identity
By: Robert Mahony.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New Haven [Conn.]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
Subjects: Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 -- Homes and haunts -- Ireland; Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 -- Political and social views; Nationalism -- Ireland -- History -- 18th century; National characteristics, Irish, in literature; Authors, Irish -- Homes and haunts -- Ireland; Authors, Irish -- 18th century -- Biography; Nationalists -- Ireland -- Biography; Statesmen -- Ireland -- Biography; Irish question; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 18th century; Ireland -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
Description: This book traces Swift's fluctuating reception in Ireland through the centuries, finding in Swift's ambivalence about his homeland - which he could not love even as he defended its cause - echoes and anticipations of the ambiguities that have marked the development of Irish identity at large. Mahony looks at Swift's posthumous reputation in literary culture and examines his unusual place in Irish political rhetoric.

He shows that Swift's patriotic reputation suffered in the later eighteenth century through its seeming irrelevance to shifting political circumstances.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-215) and index.