Satire
Satire
is wit or humor used to criticize humanity or
reform human institutions with the hope of
improving them. It may range in its
intention from a gentle prodding to a
savage attack. The writer may use a
tolerant, sympathetic tone or an angry,
bitter tone.
SATIRE
• ...must be based on the real, but be
exaggerated or distorted into the non-real;
• ...must awaken us to an awareness of the
wickedness and folly of human nature and
society
• ...must have a purpose--to make us condemn
the evil, despise the stupid, or deflate the
pompous.
• ....often uses humor, but not all humor is satire
TYPES
• Juvenalian (harsh) Satirist is angry and
perceives the vices and follies in the world and
in people as intolerable and enraging. He
attempts to reform.
• Horatian (more gentle) Satirist may be a
detached, bemused critic with no deep desire to
effectuate change. His purpose may be to hold
a mirror up to the readers and let them see
themselves and their world honestly.
TECHNIQUES
• Irony--the tension between what one is led to
expect and what actually happens
• Exaggeration or hyperbole--overstatement;
stretching the truth; making things larger that
what they really are
• Understatement--deliberately incomplete;
saying less that is meant; opposite of
exaggeration because it distorts by making less
of a subject rather than more.
• Incongruity--anything that seems out of place,
out of time, or out of character
TECHNIQUES
• Absurdity--When an idea is taken to its
logical extreme, it often becomes
ridiculous.
• Wit--word play; concentrated language
that appeals to the intellect
• Pun--play on words in which a double
meaning is applied
TECHNIQUES
• Malapropism--use of one word for
another which has a similar sound but a
different meaning
• Parody--distortion of a well-known work of
art; humorous imitation of a serious work
• Caricature--drawing or picture that
exaggerates physical features