Historically Speaking,—: Some reflections on Gulliver's Travels

1961 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 620-625
Author(s):  
C. F. Merrill
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Realistic Fiction ◽  
Utopian Fiction ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
The Fantastic

It has been stated that “Gulliver's Travels draws upon at least five traditions of world literature …, the literal travel account, realistic fiction, utopian fiction, symbolism, and the fantastic voyage [1].”* There is, however, another aspect of Gulliver's Travels which perhaps some of its readers have not considered.

Gulliver's Travels

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Swift
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
The Human Condition

‘Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.’ In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver’s Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver’s encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful blend of fantasy and realism makes Gulliver’s Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift plays tricks on us, and delivers one of the world’s most disturbing satires of the human condition. This new edition includes the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions.

scholarly journals THE EVOLUTION OF AD UTION OF ADVENTURE AND DE TURE AND DETECTIVE NO TIVE NOVELS IN VELS IN WORLD AND UZBEK СHILDREN’S PROSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-193
Author(s):  
Mokhigul Yusufovna Kakhkharova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Robinson Crusoe ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
The Social ◽  
Detective Novels ◽  
The World

Background. The article discusses psychology of teenagers and elders in detective novels which is considered to be more complicated. Although the society and the social environment change and renew the way of thinking, the changes in the world of childhood and adolescence, like the laws of nature, are constantly changing. Adolescence is a period that is complicated by the transition of a person to the stage of childhood and maturity. Methods. It is important that every teenager at this age pays more attention to the heroes of books and movies, learns from them. Consequently, the task of fiction for teenagers is also very responsible and multifaceted. Among the works of world literature such as J. Verne's "Children of Captain Grant", "Five Weeks in a Balloon", "Mysterious Island", D. Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", J. Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Uzbek children's fiction and detective prose, for example The works of H. Shaykhov, T. Malik, O. Mukhtor, H. Tukhtaboyev, as well as the didactic stories of T. Malik, E. Malik play an important role in enriching the spiritual needs of adolescents in this area. Results.

scholarly journals Mystery or not? Quantum cognition and the interpretation of the fantastic in Neil Gaiman

Ars Aeterna ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-33
Author(s):  
Ivan Čipkár
Keyword(s):  
Reader Response ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Genre Fiction ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Quantum Cognition ◽  
Realistic Fiction ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
Dual Interpretation ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Tzvetan Todorov

AbstractThe present paper describes a reader-response experiment focusing on the perception of the genre of the fantastic. It also proposes an update of the genre’s structuralist definition to better conform to contemporary cognitive research. Participants answered questions relating to the interpretation of events and important symbols in a Neil Gaiman short story and were also asked if they considered the story “fantasy” or “realistic fiction.” Tzvetan Todorov characterized the fantastic as a hesitation between the uncanny (realistic interpretation) and the marvelous (supernatural interpretation). Neil Gaiman, a popular contemporary author of genre fiction, has utilized this hesitation between psychological and supernatural explanations of his stories to great effect. The results show a consistently higher degree of enjoyment in readers who were aware of the dual interpretation and partook in the hesitation. This paper also introduces the concept of quantum cognition into literary theory and explains the benefit of using terminology from this discipline in a reader-response context. The findings of this study could be the first step towards a better understanding of the different ways in which readers cognitively approach the fantastic or genre in general.

scholarly journals FANTASTIC STORYWORLDS AND TRANSFICTIONALITY OF LITERARY CHARACTERS

2020 ◽  
pp. 009
Author(s):  
Snežana Milosavljević Milić
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Realistic Fiction ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
Literary Character ◽  
The Fantastic

The interpretation of a literary character in the context of the distinction between the multiple storyworlds is connected with the phenomenon of “transfictionality” (Saint–Gelais 2005). When the same characters inhabit more possible worlds, they become travelling narrative individuals. If they originate as a ‘transfer’ of real historical persons through different fictional and non-fictional genres, “real individuals” represent extratextual versions (Margolin 1997, Dannenberg 2008). We refer to intertextual versions in case of variants of unreal individuals in different fictional genres. When we talk about variants of characters within a text created due to “travels” of characters from realistic to fantastic worlds, or through many virtual worlds, then we refer to intratextual versions. Our starting hypothesis is that transgressiveness of a character is an immanent characteristic of heroes in fantastic fictional worlds, regardless of the type of the fantastic. Modification appears as a compulsory factor of any type of transgression. The range and intensity of heroes’ changes, as we know, show high variability, from the oldest and most explicit metamorphoses to partial or soft and barely visible modifications, from bodily transformations to psychological and mental variations, from sudden shapeshifting to gradual changes. Special intention will be paid to the counterfactual aspect of fantastic narrative world in the short stories by Radoje Domanović, Dejan Vukićević and Neil Gaiman. In line with that, we will briefly outline the intratextual relations which originate between the doubles of actual realistic fiction world and virtual/fantastic worlds. In that vein, one can consider the significant role of techniques of the fantastic in switching between storyworlds.

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