Published in 1726, Swift's ironic masterpiece follows the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver, who, shipwrecked and cast adrift, wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by very little people. Subsequent encounters with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms, the brutish Yahoos, and the (lesser known to us) denizens of Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and even Japan provide Swift with a wealth of material to evaluate. critique, and satirize British politics and colonialism, scientific thought and hyper-intellectualism, human nature, travel literature, and much more. The late Malcolm Bradbury wrote that Gulliver's Travels contains "both a dark and bitter meaning and a joyous, extraordinary creativity of imagination, and that is why it has lived for so long."

This course combines brief lectures, PowerPoint presentations, and discussion.