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Gulliver and the Houyhnhnm Good Life
- The Eighteenth Century
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 55, Number 1, Spring 2014
- pp. 109-115
- 10.1353/ecy.2014.0000
- Article
- Additional Information
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This essay analyzes Gulliver's relationship to the Houyhnhnms in Book 4 of Gulliver's Travels in light of Lauren Berlant's challenge “to reimagine state/society relations” so that “consumer forms of collectivity [are] not the main way” we “secure or fantasize securing everyday happiness.” Vital to that process, Berlant writes, is the imperative for readers to critically examine their own investments in the fantasies attached to the socio-political and economic conditions they protest.