#Satire #Englishliterature
What is Satire?
Satire (Literary Genre)
Famous Literary Device
Not Only in Literature but also in the form of Memes
Latin word Satura meaning originally a medlay or miscellany.
Only literary form invented by the Romans.
Definition of Satire
“the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.”
“The use of humour to attack a person, an idea or behaviour that you think is bad or silly”
There are two important things to remember about satire:
It makes fun of a person, idea, or institution
Its purpose is not just to entertain, but also to inform or make people think.
Purpose of Satire
Main purpose is to criticise ,to do social commentary and to entertain reader,to bring awareness, for personal envy, for exposing follies.
In literary art, the Satrical mood appears in many forms such as prose, verse, or drama.
(Social novels, poems, essays, films, cartoons, and memes.)
Not necessarily comedies, it can be serious too.
Devices used for Satire
Verbal Irony, Anarchronism, Parody, Understatement and Overstatement.
Related Terms: (Parody, Irony)
Types of Satire: Horatian Juvenalian Menippean
Horatian (Horace)
Gentle
Comic
Follies of Human Nature
To entertain
E.g, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
Juvenalian (Juvenal)
Tragic/ Dark
Follies of Politician are highlighted
Opposite to Horatian
Use of Irony
Aggressive
E.g, George Orwell's Animal Farm
Menippean (Menippus)
Oldest way of Satire
Mindset/ World view target
Serious+Comic both
E.g, Swift's Gulliver's Travels
Historical Background
The satrical attitude or mood appears oftener in some periods than in others.
The Restoration period, for example, the age of Pope which follows it are more satrical than is the restrained Victorian Age.
The history of satire since the 17th century is the history of a tone and attitude rather than the history of form. This is true even in this regard are those of Addison, Pope, Swift, Dryden, Henry Fielding, Voltaire, Samuel Beckett, Shaw, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.
Examples of Satire:
Gulliver's Travels
The Rape of the Lock
American Psycho
Animal Farm
Arms and the Man
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