-As You Can See in the Text...- Which Passages Do Literary Scholars Quote and Interpret in -Gulliver's Travels-?

This study explores why certain sections in the literary classic -Gulliver's Travels- are quoted from and interpreted more frequently and extensively than others. It asks in what way such a -quotation analysis- can help to increase our knowledge about literary understanding, especially that of longer and notoriously difficult texts. The study shows that quotations in 74 interpretations of -Gulliver- concentrate on a few passages of the book only, most of which are used to extract and -prove- the structure, topic and overall meaning of the text. On the other hand, the same passages are often considered the most -problematic- ones, Their interpretations very clearly reveal the causes and the range of various possible ways of understanding a text, its -polyvalence- in terms of an Empirical Science of Literature."