斯威夫特(1667～1745年)

Swift, Jonathan

爱尔兰作家，杰出的英语讽刺散文作家。1688年英格兰发生反天主教革命时他正在都柏林的三一学院读书，在爱尔兰的天主教徒起而反击时，他为安全起见避往英格兰，在那里时断时续地住到1714年，1695年成为英国圣公会教士。第一部主要作品《一个澡盆的故事》（1704）由三篇讽刺宗教界和学术界的小品组成。此时他也因一些宗教与政治论文以及用「比克斯塔夫」（Isaac Bickerstaff）的笔名写下的滑稽小册子而成名。尽管斯威夫特并不愿意放弃辉格党人的信仰，但因为托利党人支持建立教会，他开始为托利党写稿。《致斯特拉的信》（1710～1713年写就）一书中的书信便记录了他对变迁中的世界的态度。作为他为托利党人编写刊物的回报，1713年他被任命为都柏林圣巴特里克大教堂主教。他在爱尔兰几乎度过了他的余生，致力於揭露英国的一些错误作法及其对爱尔兰的不公正待遇，例如在他的讽刺作品《一个小小的建议》中，建议将爱尔兰穷人的幼儿卖给富有的英格兰地主当食物。着名讽刺小说《格利佛游记》表面上看是小说主角在远方遭遇到不同种族与社会的故事，实际上反映了斯威夫特揭示人性介於兽性与理性之间那种不确定地位的观点。

English version：

1667～1745年

Swift, Jonathan

Irish author, the foremost prose satirist in English. Swift was a student at Dublin's Trinity College during the anti-Catholic Revolution of 1688 in England. Irish Catholic reaction led him to seek security in England, where he spent various intervals before 1714. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1695. His first major work, A Tale of a Tub (1704), comprises three satiric sketches on religion and learning; he also became known for religious and political essays and impish pamphlets written under the name “Isaac Bickerstaff.” Reluctantly setting aside his loyalty to the Whigs, in 1710 he became the leading writer for the Tories because of their support for the established church. Journal to Stella (written 1710-13) consists of letters recording his reactions to the changing world. As a reward for writing and editing Tory publications, in 1713 he was awarded the deanery of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He spent nearly all the rest of his life in Ireland, where he devoted himself to exposing English wrongheadedness and the unfair treatment of Ireland. His ironic tract “A Modest Proposal” (1729) proposes ameliorating Irish poverty by butchering children and selling them as food to wealthy English landlords. His famously brilliant and bitter satire Gulliver's Travels (1726), ostensibly the story of its hero's encounters with various races and societies in remote regions, reflects Swift's vision of humanity's ambiguous position between bestiality and rationality.