El lado más oscuro de Jonathan Swift: sobre la colonialidad del ser en A Modest Proposal (1729)

Autores/as

  • Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24162/EI2023-12110

Palabras clave:

Decolonial, Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal, Ilustración, modernidad/colonialidad, irlandés, colonialidad del ser

Resumen

Este artículo propone una lectura de A Modest Proposal desde la perspectiva más oscura de una Ilustración occidentalizada y anglicista. En primer lugar, aborda desde un prisma crítico la proclividad de la academia anglocéntrica a celebrar figuras literarias en lengua inglesa asociadas con “la Ilustración” en Irlanda sin cuestionar su papel en el proyecto colonial y en la configuración de discursos raciales y sexistas. En segundo lugar, el artículo se centra en demostrar cómo, desde una perspectiva decolonial irlandesa, Jonathan Swift puede entenderse como un gestor de una matriz de poder colonial racial/patriarcal. En tercer lugar, el ensayo propone que la sátira escrita por Jonathan Swift debe abordarse como una categoría geocultural anglocéntrica y que puede entenderse como una sátira ilustrada occidentalizada/anglicanizada. Por último, se analiza A Modest Proposal en términos del principio de excepcionalidad de la ironía, el proyecto swiftiano de mejora y salvación de los colonizados, y la promesa retórica de la modernidad/colonialidad, aunque incapaz de resolver los problemas que produce.

Biografía del autor/a

Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin

Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin is finalising his PhD dissertation on Gaelic song practices as epistemic, decolonial disobedience at the Centre for Postcolonial Studies, Linnaeus University Sweden. He holds an BA (hons) in sociology from Trinity College, an MA in cultural analysis and an MSc (cum laude) in sociology from the University of Amsterdam. During the fourth year of his PhD, he undertook a research visit at the artistic studies doctoral program, Universidad Distrital, José Francisco de Caldas in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2023 he was invited by the University of South Africa to lecture on the UNISA summer school on “Afrocentric, decolonial and knowledges otherwise”, where he also participated in a one-month research visit, presenting two research seminars organised by African Decolonial Network.

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Publicado

18-12-2023

Cómo citar

Ó Cuinneagáin, E. (2023). El lado más oscuro de Jonathan Swift: sobre la colonialidad del ser en A Modest Proposal (1729). Estudios Irlandeses, 18(2), 11–27. https://doi.org/10.24162/EI2023-12110