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Burke and Swift on the Ethics of Revolution
- SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 52, Number 3, Summer 2012
- pp. 669-696
- 10.1353/sel.2012.0028
- Article
- Additional Information
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I argue that the concept of parody helps locate a subtly subversive aspect to the eighteenth-century conservatism of Burke and Swift. Examining their work in this way clarifies why these two authors, who occasionally seem to evidence radical qualities, can at the same time express a preference for more ostensibly restrained action. Because parody is a technique that preserves and recycles major aspects of the satirized object, it presents a mechanism for condensing a number of seemingly contradictory goals, deftly combining limited alterations and the appearance of reserved moderation with revolutionary aims.