Jonathan Swift‘s A Modest Proposal and Antonio Ungar‘s Kamandil Viarko: An Interpretation of Cannibalismn
Abstract
Cannibalism is a controversial topic to be considered from literal and metaphorical perspectives and it has not been thoroughly addressed from a literary approach. This paper interprets metaphorical and literal cannibalism as a means of social criticism in Jonathan Swift‘s A Modest Proposal and Antonio Ungar‘s Kamandil Viarko in terms of its social acceptance or rejection. The acceptance or rejection of cannibalism in the societies in which the novels are set varies according to the author‘s use of cannibalism. Although both texts criticize society, in AMP the acceptance or rejection matches the satire of the author to present it as an economic benefit in order to criticize the mercantilist society exposed in the novel. On the other hand in KV, cultural assimilation is caused by globalization. Since it is no longer essential to avoid massive starvation, no longer useful, the dominant culture rejects it and it is masked as immoral and as a belief system where the change of cannibalism from acceptance into rejection is exposed from the victims‘ perspective.
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