How does Gulliver’s Travels parody popular travel narratives?

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) functions as a parody of the travel narratives that were highly popular during the 18th century. By adopting the persona of Lemuel Gulliver—a surgeon and sea captain—Swift utilizes the conventions of the travelogue, such as the first-person account of voyages to remote, exotic lands, to create a framework for his satire.12

The work mimics the matter-of-fact, sober style typical of such narratives to ground its fantastical elements in an air of reality. However, rather than providing genuine exploration, Swift uses these encounters to mock English customs, politics, and human nature itself. For instance, the petty political divisions in Lilliput parody the Whig and Tory factions, while the impractical projects of the academy in Lagado serve as a travesty of the Royal Society. Ultimately, the novel subverts the genre by transforming the narrator from a prideful modern man into a misanthrope, making him a final object of the book's biting critique.213