1/11/2013
Satire
Writing that uses wit, irony, and ridicule to attack
foolishness, incompetence, or evil in a person or
idea. Satire has a different purpose from comedy,
which usually intends to simply entertain. Satire
aims to educate or improve through the use of the
above techniques.
Understanding Satire
Irony
The ability to recognize ironic tone, one of the chief elements in
satire, is a sure test of intelligence and sophistication. Those who
read only for literal meaning are apt to misinterpret irony. A writer’s
ironic tone may seem unemotional and detached from the material,
where as s/he is more than likely disguising deeper feelings, or real
outrage and moral indignation. Among the devices writers use to
achieve irony are:
Hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect
Understatement: a statement that says less than is actually or literally
true
Sarcasm: a critical, contemptuous statement expressed as verbal
irony
Incongruity: the result of combining inappropriate or unfitting
elements.
In addition to “ironic,” some tone words that characterize satire
are: facetious, mocking, flippant, indignant, vehement, and bitter.
Understanding Satire
Verisimilitude
This is the appearance or semblance of truth in literature,
achieved when details, however far-fetched, give the
appearance of truth and sweep the reader, for the moment at
least, into an acceptance of them.
Structure
The organization of a satire may be carefully structured to
build to a point or create suspense. It may also mimic the
original in a type of satire called parody. In other words, the
satirist, like all good writers, organizes in a way that makes
his/her point.
Identifying Satirical Devices
In the following clip, identify as many of the above
devices as you can. Write down the examples as you
see them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1T75jBYeCs
Understanding Satire
Diction
Satirist may choose words that are deliberately shocking to the
reader. They may also mimic or parody the work or person
being satirized.
Theme
The primary target of satire is a problem the writer wants the
audience to recognize and/or change. The issue may be social,
political, or cultural.
Persona
The writer may pretend to be someone else, to be a type of
person, s/he is really not, or to have attitudes and beliefs s/he
really does not hold.
Horatian or Juvenalian—That is the Question
Horace (65 – 8 B.C.)
Ridiculed folly and bad taste. He produced the Sermones (30
B.C.), two books of discourse, conversational in style,
humorous and urbane, dealing with a variety of subjects. These
included incidents in the life of the poet, the follies and vices of
human beings, and his own poetical methods. Horace is
particularly admired for his ability to ridentem dicere verum
(“to tell the truth with a smile”), and his poems usually appear
to pass gentle comment on human failings rather than dealing
with these faults with malice.
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1/11/2013
Satire Continua
Horatian or Juvenalian—That is the Question
Juvenal (b. 55 A.D.) published his 16 Satires between
110 and 130 A.D., during the reigns of the Roman
emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Although Juvenal
claims Horace and Lucilius as his masters, his poetry
has none of their gentle humor. His Satires are
notable for their bitter ironic humor, power of
invective, grim epigram, sympathy with the poor,
and narrow-minded pessimism, while he attacks the
rich and condemns the female sex. His level of
diction alternates violently between the elevated and
the low.
1. Type of Satire
(bitter)
2. Attack
Direct (little
to no ironic
diction)
3. Target
Identifying Satire
For each of the following examples
Identify the target of the satire and the satirical devices the
author uses.
Place the quote on each of the continua—is it Horatian or
Juvenalian? Direct or indirect? Topical or universal?
Reminders:
Sometimes where the satire falls on the continuum depends on
how you feel about the issue. The idea is less to be “right” than
to justify how it elicits reaction.
The target often determines how biting the satire will be.
When you can identify something as satire, you realize it is
“medicine” for the target. What kind of medicine is it—sugarcoated or bitter?
Horatian
(gentle) Juvenalian
Topical
(short-lived,
current)
Indirect (much
ironic diction)
Universal
(long-lived)
Identifying Satire
“They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.”
--Alexander Pope
“Wherefore being all of one mind, we do highly
resolve that government of the grafted by the grafter
for the grafter shall not perish from the earth.”
--Mark Twain
Identifying Satire
“NBA players had to agree to four random drug tests per
year, up from the current one per year. The owners
wanted more tests, but it wasn’t possible because of their
promise to notify players three months before each
random test.”
--Scott Witt
“In other words, a war that could destroy the global order
and cast a region of the earth into chaos was discussed
for about as much time as it takes Lenscrafters to make a
pair of bifocals.”
--Jon Stewart (Concerning a one-hour meeting President George W.
Bush had with leaders of England and Spain in March 2003 about
war in Iraq.)
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