Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver’s Travels
- The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver’s Travels
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Note on the Text
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts
- Part II Genres
- Part III Reading Gulliver’s Travels
- Chapter 9 Advertisements and Authorship
- Chapter 10 A Voyage to Lilliput
- Chapter 11 A Voyage to Brobdingnag
- Chapter 12 A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, &c.
- Chapter 13 A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms
- Part IV Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Literature
Chapter 11 - A Voyage to Brobdingnag
from Part III - Reading Gulliver’s Travels
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver’s Travels
- The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver’s Travels
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Note on the Text
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts
- Part II Genres
- Part III Reading Gulliver’s Travels
- Chapter 9 Advertisements and Authorship
- Chapter 10 A Voyage to Lilliput
- Chapter 11 A Voyage to Brobdingnag
- Chapter 12 A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, &c.
- Chapter 13 A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms
- Part IV Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Literature
Summary
The Voyage to Brobdingnag reduces Gulliver from the magnanimous and principled behemoth of the Voyage to Lilliput to a risible and contemptible little beast. The first section considers how Gulliver is diminished to an inconsequential creature, objectified and commodified by the giants who handle him as a freak show exhibit or a pet. The second section contends that Gulliver does recuperate his human identity, albeit in a precarious manner, by differentiating himself from animals he encounters in Brobdingnag. However, he is confronted with the disgusting physicality of humans, making his restitution of human identity highly ambivalent. The third section examines how the satire is broadened from human nature to political institutions in Gulliver’s dialogue with the king and account of Brobdingnagian society. The destabilisation of species boundaries and pessimism about human corruption in this voyage are key to the overall vision of Gulliver’s Travels.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver's Travels , pp. 137 - 149Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023