Satire: A Brief Overview

Visual text analysis. What is the target of this satire? Did it work?

Context matters To fully understand satire, one must have a clear understanding of the context of the satire and its target.

Definition Holding vice up to ridicule in order to shame individuals, corporations, government or society into changing. Jonathan Swift: “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.”

Satire isn’t always funny There are types of satire that are not meant to be “funny” at all. Even light-hearted satire has a serious after-taste; “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”

The Goal of Satire Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, but it's not obligated to solve them.

Caricature Exaggeration of one or more characteristic details to represent a person, often the distortion of a visual aspect, such as a big nose

Lampoon: Sharp satire directed against a person, a social institution, or the government.

Horatian Satire Playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humor. Makes fun of general human folly rather than engaging in specific or personal attacks.

Horatian Example Huckleberry Finn (1884) set in the antebellum South, features Huck, a simple but goodhearted lad who is ashamed of the "sinful temptation" that leads him to help a runaway slave.

Juvenalian Satire More abrasive and scornful Often pessimistic, characterized by irony and sarcasm, with less emphasis on humor. Provokes change because the target is evil.

Juvenalian Example In his A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty. His purpose is to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor.

Sarcasm Sharp or cutting statement like a taunt, meant to really drive a point home Groucho Marx – “Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.”

Irony Verbal irony - where what you mean to say is different from the words you use Situational irony - compares what is expected to happen with what actually does happen Dramatic irony - uses a narrative to give the audience more information about the story than the character knows

Parody Also called a spoof, used to make fun or mock someone or something by imitating them in a funny or satirical way