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TEACHER RESOURCES
An Introduction to Satire (excerpts) [This document is the text of a lecture delivered, in part, in English 200, Section 3, in November 1998, by Ian Johnston. This lecture is in the public domain, released November 22, 1998] B. Introductory Note on Satire Formally defined, satire is "A composition in verse or prose holding up vice or folly to ridicule or lampooning individuals. . . . The use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc., in speech or writing for the ostensible purpose of exposing and discourage vice or folly." In other words, satire is a particular use of humour for overtly moral purposes. It seeks to use laughter, not just to remind us of our common often ridiculous humanity, but rather to expose those moral excesses, those corrigible sorts of behaviour which transgress what the writer sees as the limits of acceptable moral behaviour. Let me put this another way. If we see someone or some group acting in a way we think is morally unacceptable and we wish to correct such behaviour, we have a number of options. We can try to force them to change their ways (through threats of punishment); we can deliver stern moral lectures, seeking to persuade them to change their ways; we can try the Socratic approach of engaging them in a conversation which probes the roots of their beliefs; or, alternatively, we can encourage everyone to see them as ridiculous, to laugh at them, to render them objects of scorn for the group. In doing so we will probably have at least two purposes in mind: first, to effect some changes in the behaviour of the target (so that he or she reforms) and, second, to encourage others not to behave in such a manner. In that sense, what sets satire apart from normal comedy (and the two often shade into each other in ways which make an exact border line difficult to draw), is that in satire there is usually a clear and overt didactic intention, a clear moral lesson is the unifying power of the work: this conduct is wrong and needs to be exposed. Whatever the style of the satire, the writer must avoid at all costs becoming predictable and dull. C. Satire: Some Key Terms The satirist has a number of traditional stylistic techniques at his or her disposal. Some of the more common are as follows: Invective: describes very abusive, usually non-ironical language aimed at a particular target (e.g., a string of curses or name calling). Invective can often be quite funny (e.g., in Fawlty Towers), but it is the least inventive of the satirist's tools. A lengthy invective is sometimes called a diatribe. The danger of pure invective is that one can quickly get tired of it, since it offers little opportunity for inventive wit. Caricature: refers to the technique of exaggerating for comic and satiric effect one particular feature of the target, to achieve a grotesque or ridiculous effect. The term caricature generally refers more to drawing than it does to writing (e.g., the political cartoon). Almost all satire relies to some extent on the distortion of caricature. In that sense, satire is not concerned with psychological verisimilitude. The natural state of the target is pulled out of shape to make a satiric point. Burlesque: refers to ridiculous exaggeration in language, usually one which makes the discrepancy between the words and the situation or the character silly. For example, to have a king speak like an idiot or a workman speak like a king (especially, say, in blank verse) is burlesque. Similarly, a very serious situation can be burlesqued by having the characters in it speak or behave in ridiculously inappropriate ways. Mock Heroic, a particular form of burlesque (see above) is a satiric style which sets up a deliberately disproportionate and witty distance between the elevated language used to describe an action and the triviality or foolishness of the action (using, for example, the language of epics to describe a tea party). Irony: a stylistic device or figure of speech in which the real meaning of the words is different from (and opposite to) the literal meaning. Irony, unlike sarcasm, tends to be ambiguous, bringing two contrasting meanings into play. Many forms of language are inherently ironical, since words carry complex connotations. Irony becomes satiric when the real meaning appears to contradict the surface meaning (e.g., A Modest Proposal). Irony is not, of course, confined to satire. Lampoon: generally refers to a very harsh and personal attack on a very particular recognizable target, focusing on the target's character or appearance. Parody: refers to a style which deliberately seeks to ridicule another style. This may involve, in less talented parody, simply offering up a very silly version of the original. In more skilful parodies, the writer imitates the original very well, pushing it beyond its limits and making it ridiculous.
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