In this episode, we start with Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which was first published 300 years ago. The story is very well known by children and adults, but the original novel is not so often read. It seems like a children’s adventure story, but it is also a political and religious satire. And towards the end of the book, the author, Swift, seem to reveal quite a lot of his true feelings about himself, even a self-disgust. We talk about how academic writing, like Swift’s book, can reveal more than we expect about ourselves. This can be a good thing, but whether good or bad it is worth thinking about what we say – and what we should say – about ourselves in academic texts. There is often (at least) a ghost of ourselves, an imprint, in what we write. Shy or outgoing, something is revealed by our articles and books. There is a smell.
","author_name":"Julian Stern"}