The trickster as an instrument of enlightenment: George Psalmanazar and the writings of Jonathan Swift ☆
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Abstract
The publication of George Psalmanazar's Description of Formosa
(1704–1705) and the controversy surrounding the young man who claimed
to be ‘a Native of Formosa, An Island subject to the Emperor of Japan,’
must place text and author among the most audacious examples of literary
fraud in any language. Psalmanazar's Formosa fabrications—including
claims of endemic polygamy, cannibalism, and child sacrifice—titillated
and appalled his contemporaries, including Jonathan Swift, who paid mock
tribute to the ‘famous Salmanaazor’ in A Modest Proposal
(1729), crediting the ‘Formosan’ with being the true genius behind the
plan ‘for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a
burden on their parents or country’. Little attention has been paid to
the possibility that Psalmanazar may have been a source for other Swift
satires, including the little-known An Account of the Court and Empire of Japan (1727–1728), and major texts such as Gulliver’s Travels
(1726). This essay aims to bring the image of one of the 18th century's
more entertaining personalities into sharper resolution, and to explore
the possibility that his influence on Swift was greater than has been
generally suspected.
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- While gathering research materials used in this paper, I was allowed generous access to rare books and facilities at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, the Ethnology Library at Academia Sinica in Nankang, and most recently Newcastle University in the UK. I wish to acknowledge the helpful scholars and staff at all three institutions.
- Department of English Literature, C/o University of Sheffield, Shearwood Mount Shearwood Road, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. Tel.:
+44-114-268-4402; fax: +44-114-2228-452
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.