Colonialism

This chapter examines Swift’s complex relationship to colonialism. Arguing that we cannot understand Swift’s anti-colonialism as part of what we might think of as some kind of progressive or liberatory project, the chapter explores the seeming inconsistency of his contemptuous attitude towards colonised peoples (particularly the ‘Savage Irish’). The colonisation and oppression of Ireland, and his complex position as both beneficiary and subject of it, is important to Swift’s writings. But this background also makes it difficult to pin down precise ideological positions or find straightforward political analogies or critiques in his works.