스위프트의 「사우스씨 프로젝트에 대하여」에 나타난 바다의 풍자적 고찰

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the properties of the sea in Jonathan Swift’s “Upon the South Sea Bubble” (1720). By analyzing it as a symbol of the various changes that took place in eighteenth-century Britain and as an object of delusion and distortion, this paper examines the ways in which Swift unravels the historical stock bubble caused by the imperfections of the new modern financial economic structure as well as the abuses of government power and management entities. I argue that Swift blames their irresistible forces for causing a speculative frenzy, which misled the citizens into an unestablished sea-like pit. Swift depicts the sea through a variety of classical metaphors to portray economic systems, national public credit, national identity, and the confusion the citizens experienced over intangible assets. Departing from the neoclassical criticism that Swift’s works are caustic satires full of hatred, madness, disorder and chaos, this paper presents a new enlightening view that the poet rather consoles the citizens who have been victims of social chaos and the enormous damage that consequently ensued. I assert that Swift’s satirical irony consists of double metaphors profound enough to convey the poet’s voice only when read separately from the narrator’s raillery.