Page 153 - Gullivers

Many of his plays begin from this central strategy working through the dialogue and action to challenge the certainty and the humbug that underpins
a great deal of moral complacency. Shaw’s writing was acclaimed in his lifetime and his wit and cleverness was celebrated. However, many English audiences and readers were unthinkingly enamoured of the superficial charm of his comedy, failing to recognise their own society’s shortcomings in the characters and action as he intended. In Ireland his reception was more favourable insofar as his political analysis, both in his writing and his drama, was embraced by many eager for social change.
However the satirical content was perceived, or not, the use of puns and other word games was a feature of Swist’s writing (and is at the centre of the ‘Jack Tales’ already mentioned) and this is an aspect of Swist’s legacy that Shaw also emulated to great effect. The value Swist put on an energetic use of language,
on the passionate disavowal of that which offends and the fiery invective he is renowned for – much of this comes from his close proximity to the language of his neighbours in Dublin’s Liberties, the area adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Hiberno-English of these Dubliners osten embraces a playful relationship
to language, and to use a term invented by Joyce, a ‘jocoserious’ relationship to language. Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) and his later masterpiece, Finnegans Wake (1939) takes this aspect of Swist’s technique to extremes although it could be argued that the extent of Joyce’s explorations and his distinct and richly encoded example
of inventive wordplay has made this entirely his own. The scatological element of Swist’s œuvre is also developed by Joyce and given a wealth of reference and richness of meaning surpassing his predecessor.
A truly pronounced presence of Swistian literary strategies and techniques can be found in the works of the later writer, Brian O’Nolan or Flann O’Brien, where the influence of Swist is patently apparent. His writing has osten been compared to that of James Joyce but his true literary precursor is Swist. In O’Brien’s writing we find an embrace of Swistian strategies unparalleled by another writer before
VII. The Influence of Jonathan Swist on Anglo-Irish Writing 147