Introduction: Swift's Queerness

In raising the topic of Jonathan Swift and queerness, we might just as plausibly ask: what is not queer about Swift? From the strangely erotic spectacle of libidinous Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels (1726) to his gruesome suggestion to cannibalise Irish children in A Modest Proposal (1729), Swift's satire singularly bristles with queer potential. The six articles in this supplement variously offer queer theoretical and pedagogical engagements with Swift's work, while also, importantly, foregrounding how Swift's writing was queer and queering in its own time. This introduction presents a brief case study in queering Swift before surveying the articles that feature in this 'Queer Swift' supplement.