Anglo-Irish satirist who wrote Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal — the greatest satirist in the English language — whose savage irony exposed the stupidity of human pride, political corruption, and the brutal logic of colonialism in Ireland.
Created the model of devastating satirical irony — A Modest Proposal's suggestion that Irish children be eaten for food, presented with complete earnestness, is the supreme example of how irony can expose moral horror more effectively than direct argument — making Swift the master of what cannot be said directly being said through its opposite.
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