Gulliver at 300 – 24th International Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels or Travels into several remote nations of the world by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon afterwards captain of several ships, was first published in London on 28 October 1726. This year marks the 300th anniversary of what is perhaps the most published and the most commented upon work by an Irish author. The 24th International Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift marks this important anniversary by bringing together leading literary scholars from Ireland, Britian and the US to explore some unusual and less studied aspects of the Travels.

Venue: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Deanery.

SPEAKERS

Aileen Douglas, TCD: Sensing satire in Gulliver’s Travels

This paper thinks about Gulliver as a satiric object. It teases out how Swift’s protagonist senses satire, visually, through mirroring and reflection, but also feelingly, through touch and physical contact. The focus of this exercise will be a couple of much cited and discussed passages in Book II, in Brobdingnag, and Book IV, Voyage to the Houyhnhnms.

W.J. McCormack, formerly Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London and Keeper, Worth’s Library, Dublin : Which Lilliput and When? or Thoughts on the Unity of Gulliver’s Travels

This paper considers the critical analysis of the Travels by the overlooked later-twentieth century scholar James Walton, Professor of English at Trinity College, Dublin

Jenny Davidson, Columbia University: Meditation on a Handbag: Gulliver in the House of Hermès

Why was first Gulliver — then Swift — chosen as the name for one of the luxury leathers of Hermès? Taking this as my jumping-off point, I will consider both evocative and perverse aspects of this naming choice; I will draw on theories of the appeal of the miniature (Susan Stewart) and of the relationship between skin, parchment and culture (Bruce Holsinger and many others) in a playful tour of Gulliver’s Travels and a few of the many works it has inspired.

Daniel Cook, University of Dundee: Mrs. Gulliver’s Travels

This talk traces the literary afterlife of Mary Gulliver, the largely silent wife mentioned only in passing throughout Gulliver’s Travels. Drawing on adaptations spanning three centuries — from Pope’s 1727 poems to Lauren Chater’s 2020 novel Gulliver’s Wife — it examines two competing modes of giving voice to minor characters: counterwriting, which challenges the original text’s silences, and underwriting, which tries to fill them in

Respondent

Professor Paddy Bullard, University of Reading.

The annual International Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift is organised by Professor Robert Mahony, Jonahtan Swift Foundation and is supported by St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin.

As space is limited pre-booking is essential