A Modest Proposal

E166315

A Modest Proposal is Jonathan Swift’s famous 1729 satirical essay that uses shocking irony to criticize British policy toward the impoverished Irish.

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All labels observed (2)

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf pamphlet
satirical essay
author Jonathan Swift
canonicalStatus classic of English satire
countryOfOrigin Ireland
criticizes British exploitation of Ireland
heartless economic rationalism
indifference to Irish poverty
firstPublishedIn Dublin
form essay
fullTitle A Modest Proposal self-linksurface differs
surface form: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick
hasInfluenced discourse on satire and irony
modern political satire
hasMainCharacter unnamed projector (narrator)
historicalContext 18th-century Ireland
British–Irish relations
surface form: Anglo-Irish relations
includedIn Jonathan Swift bibliographies
influencedBy contemporary economic tracts
language English
literaryDevice hyperbole
irony
parody
understatement
literaryGenre political satire
prose
satire
movement Enlightenment literature
narrativeVoice first-person persona
notableQuote "I have been assured by a very knowing American..."
"a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food"
originalPublicationFormat pamphlet
pageCountApprox approximately 10 pages
primarySubject British policy in Ireland
overpopulation and poverty
poverty in Ireland
proposedSolutionInText selling and eating Irish infants
publicationDate 1729
setting Ireland
studiedIn English literature courses
courses on satire
targetAudience English and Anglo-Irish ruling classes
theme colonialism
dehumanization of the poor
economic exploitation
moral blindness
timePeriod Augustan literature
tone ironic
satirical
workOf Jonathan Swift

Referenced by (6)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Augustan literature notableWork A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift notableWork A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal fullTitle A Modest Proposal self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick
Swift notableWork A Modest Proposal
subject surface form: Jonathan Swift
Drapier's Letters relatedWork A Modest Proposal