Text, "Text", and Swift's "A Tale of a Tub" Author(s): Marcus Walsh Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 85, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 290-303 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3731810 . Accessed: 23/12/2014 16:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern Language Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:56:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TEXT, 'TEXT', AND SWIFT'S A TALE OF A TUB Few printed texts make so apparent, or are so ingenious about, their textual nature and status as Swift's A Taleofa Tub,and few have given rise to so much interpretative controversy. The Tale has been a focus of some of the key disagreements in modern critical theory. It has been possible to think of the Taleas embodying, as the Apology of I 7 0 so repeatedly suggests, 'the Author's Intention', its satiric purpose being 'to expose the Abuses and Corruptions