Abstract

This paper discusses the political implications of Diderot’s Paradox on the actor by relating it to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Albeit these two authors seem to have only very little in common, they actually just employ different techniques in order to deal with a similar problem: In the same way that Diderot’s Paradox is more than a theoretical essay on the theory of acting, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is not only a fictitious travel narrative critical of society. In fact, Swift’s literary text offers a unique illustration of Diderot’s theoretical exploration of power structures and structures of thinking. It will become evident that both works are meditations on the correlations of observation, and hence also on power relations. As such, they raise questions concerning the functioning of society and the role of the individual in maintaining this society.