1. Jonathan Swift & Satire

2. What is a Satire?
A satire is any piece of writing or graphic media designed to make its readers feel critical – of themselves, of their fellow human beings, and of their society.
Satire is usually directed at humanity in general, but can also target a specific group or individual.

3. Horatian Satire
Horace was a Roman poet and satirist during the time of Augustus.
Horatian satire is humorous and intended to make us laugh at human foolishness or weakness.

4. Juvenalian Satire
Juvenal was a Roman poet and satirist during the 1st century.
Juvenalian satire is harsh and intended to make us angry at human vice and corruption.

5. Satirists perform an important function in society when they expose errors and absurdities that we no longer notice because custom and familiarity have blinded us to them.

6. Satirists often use exaggeration, or hyperbole, to make their criticism. However, instead of giving constructive advice, satire usually just emphasizes what is wrong with the world.

7. Satirists are dissatisfied with situations as they are, and they aim to make them better (in their opinion).
However, satirists are often misunderstood and accused of being:
- irresponsible
- controversial
- blasphemous

8. JON STEWART Jon Swift
Most influential prose writer and satirist in 18th century England
Born in Dublin, Ireland of English parents
A Modest Proposal satirizes the desperate conditions in Ireland and criticizes the English policies that kept the people of Ireland poor.
Juvenalian satire that uses hyperbole to criticize attitudes towards the poor and English economic policies.

9. A Modest Proposal (1729)
Swift assumes the role of a “practical” economic planner, pretending to be objective, and full of common sense.
Swift protests against a purely statistical view of humanity.
Logical (logos) appeals: evidence, facts, statistics
Emotional (pathos) appeals: words that arouse strong feelings
- Ethical (ethos) appeals: establish the writer as sincere and knowledgeable

10. England is a jerk-face to Ireland
England conquered Ireland
England colonized Ireland
In other words… England decided to take the Irish people’s land from them and build big castles for their own English aristocracy to live in like “little kings” with Irish people working the land so the English could profit. Sir Edmund Spencer, the Renaissance poet, was a “little king.”
Ultimately, Ireland goes Braveheart on their English oppressors.