Socio-Political Significances of the Use of Fantasy: A Study of Gulliver’s Travels

  • Unique Paper ID: 182274
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 2
  • PageNo: 937-944
  • Abstract:
  • Fantasy, a literary genre, creates fictional worlds that resonate with reality by incorporating supernatural elements. It is characterized by non-rationality, a connection to reality, and the ability to evoke wonder, offering an escape from harsh realities and serving as wish fulfilment. Fantasy often utilizes symbols, dreams, myths, and images, possessing its own logic that readers must engage with. While not always humorous, fantasy approaches reality with a "willing suspension of disbelief" and can be a vehicle for satire. Jonathan Swift effectively employs both fantasy and satire in Gulliver's Travels to critique society and human vices. This paper focuses on how Swift uses fantasy to expose the Enlightenment's view of humans as purely rational beings, particularly challenging British Empiricism and its coercive power mechanisms. Through distorted lenses, Swift uses Augustan satire not merely to tell a fairy tale, but to reveal political truths to the common reader.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2025 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{182274,
        author = {AAHELI CHAKRABORTY},
        title = {Socio-Political Significances of the Use of Fantasy: A Study of Gulliver’s Travels},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {2},
        pages = {937-944},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=182274},
        abstract = {Fantasy, a literary genre, creates fictional worlds that resonate with reality by incorporating supernatural elements. It is characterized by non-rationality, a connection to reality, and the ability to evoke wonder, offering an escape from harsh realities and serving as wish fulfilment. Fantasy often utilizes symbols, dreams, myths, and images, possessing its own logic that readers must engage with. While not always humorous, fantasy approaches reality with a "willing suspension of disbelief" and can be a vehicle for satire. Jonathan Swift effectively employs both fantasy and satire in Gulliver's Travels to critique society and human vices. This paper focuses on how Swift uses fantasy to expose the Enlightenment's view of humans as purely rational beings, particularly challenging British Empiricism and its coercive power mechanisms. Through distorted lenses, Swift uses Augustan satire not merely to tell a fairy tale, but to reveal political truths to the common reader.},
        keywords = {Fantasy, Satire, Gulliver's Travels, Socio-Political, supernatural},
        month = {July},
        }

Cite This Article

  • ISSN: 2349-6002
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 2
  • PageNo: 937-944

Socio-Political Significances of the Use of Fantasy: A Study of Gulliver’s Travels

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