By August Enger
Author Biography:
August Enger is an undergraduate student of English Literature and History at the University of Edinburgh. He is wishing to undertake a dissertation in English Literature in 2024, and his research interests are bodies and the Other in literature. He grew up in Norway and now lives in Scotland with his partner.
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This essay examines Aphra Behn's play The Rover (1677) and Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) with a focus on how, and to what ends, the texts engage with the world beyond England's borders. Focusing on the characters of Gulliver and Willmore, the essay argues that the texts display a way of engaging with cultural and geographical ‘others’ that speaks to an English exploitation of asymmetries of power. Despite the character development throughout the texts, it is found that both characters are ultimately unwilling to change themselves and their behaviours in favour of a more equitable power balance in the foreign social spaces they enter.
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