Words Not in the Story: Paratextual Analysis of Moral Education in a School Edition of Gulliver's Travels in China

Abstract

As a world classic, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is on the compulsory reading list for elementary students in China, and many school editions have been published to meet this curricular requirement. This paper aims to reveal how the paratext, which is often neglected because of its peripheral position, contributes to moral education, especially in influencing young readers' positive interpretation of the protagonist. The two additional narrators which are introduced in the paratext by the translator/adapter form a dialogue with the main story and represent an effort to harness the story with a specific moral educational direction.