SATIRE
JENKINS HONORS 9
NECESSARY NOTES
L E A R N I N G TA R G E T : I C A N D E F I N E S AT I R E , E X P L A I N H O W I T I S
U S E D , A N D D E S C R I B E T H E T O O L S W R I T E R S U S E T O C R E A T E I T.
SATIRE
•Literary art of diminishing a subject by
making it ridiculous and evoking toward it
attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn
or indignation.
•
http://www.literarydevices.com/satire/
WHY?
•for the purpose of social criticism.
• Satire ridicules problems in society,
government, businesses, and individuals in order
to bring attention to certain follies, vices, and
abuses, as well as to lead to improvements.
• http://www.literarydevices.com/satire/
WHAT ARE THE PURPOSES OF SATIRE?
•1. real-world change or reform.
•2. honest re-examination of values
•3. development of new goals, attitudes, or
perspectives
•
http://www.literarydevices.com/satire/
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SATIRE AND HUMOR
• Satire is meant to encourage change while humor is just meant to
make you laugh.
• Need to know this because sometimes people think because it
pokes fun at current political figure, movie, or trend it is satire.
• If the joke is meant to encourage social change, honest reexamination of values, or encourage development of new goals,
attitudes, or perspectives = than you have satire!
FOR EXAMPLE….
THIS IS FUNNY, BUT IS IT SATIRE?
HOW ABOUT THIS
WHAT ARE THE TOOLS OF SATIRE?
• wit, fantasy, irony, sarcasm, hyperbole,
understatement, incongruity, puns, double
entendre, paradox, hyperbole, sarcasm,
contradiction, distortion, oxymoron, reversal,
ambiguity
TECHNIQUES/
CHARACTERISTICS OF SATIRE.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THESE TERMS MEAN?
IN LAB TODAY, YOU WILL TAKE NOTES
IN YOUR JOURNAL
• 1. read the slide
• 2. digest information / think about it
• 3. paraphrase it in your notes
All red terms -in the following slides – should be in your
journal.You may paraphrase info as you like, but include all red
terms.
In order to complete homework this weekend, you must
understand the info. Info will also be on satire test.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
“FOLLIES” AND “VICES”?
• So you already know that: Satire ridicules problems in
society, government, businesses, and individuals in order to
bring attention to certain follies, vices, and abuses, as
well as to lead to improvements.
• So what’s the difference between “follies” and “vices”?
• Need to know b/c if a satire brings attention to follies it is
one type of satire, and if brings attention to our vices-it is
another type of satire.
• Do you remember definition for our vocab word vices?
• What are “vices”?
• What are our “follies”?
What’s the difference?????
DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS OF SATIRE
• Within the general definition of satire,
there are 2 different types of satire.
•1. Horatian:
•2. Juvenalian:
HORATIAN SATIRE
• Named after ancient Roman satirists—Horace (first century BCE)
• Humorous, lighthearted jabbing
• Satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant,
amused, and witty.
• The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the
absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at
producing in the reader not the anger but a wry
smile.
HORATIAN SATIRE
• Playfully criticizes vices with wit, exaggeration,
gentle and light hearted humor
• Issues being criticized are viewed as “folly” rather than evil to
society and meant to make us laugh
• -Looking to make people laugh at themselves, rather than looking
for changes to occur
HORATIAN:
• Horace playfully mocked the societal norms of his day,
and the satire named after him is clever, yet gentle.
• Rather than attacking evils, Horatian satire ridicules
universal human folly so that the reader might identify with what is
being critiqued and laugh at him/herself as well as at society.
ARE THESE EXAMPLES OF
HORATIAN SATIRE?
THE OTHER KIND…..
JUVENALIAN SATIRE
• Juvenalian satire--After the Roman satirist Juvenal:
• Formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error
with contempt and indignation
• Juvenalian satire in its realism and its harshness is in strong
contrast to Horatian satire.
JUVENALIAN
• Unlike Horace, Juvenal attacked public
and governmental organizations through his satires.
He regarded their opinions not just as wrong, but instead as
evil.
Juvenalian satire thus is more contemptuous and
abrasive, and uses strong irony and sarcasm.
Polarized political satire is often of this nature, and aims to
provoke change.
Juvenalian satire is not often as humorous.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES…….
AND SOME MORE…..
HOW ABOUT THESE……
COMMON EXAMPLES OF SATIRE
• There are many different ways that people satirize popular culture. Here are some non-literary examples of
satire:
• Steven Colbert: Steven Colbert is a popular media figure who has built his career on pretending to be a selfrighteous and highly opinionated commentator. His satire is based on parroting popular opinions or
government officials’ ideas and taking them to the furthest extent, thereby revealing their hypocrisy.
• The Onion: The Onion is a fake news source that uses contemporary issues and highlights their absurdity.
Some of the most popular headlines they’ve published include: “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace
and Prosperity Is Finally Over,'” “Supreme Court Rules Supreme Court Rules,” and “Clinton Deploys Vowels to
Bosnia; Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients.”
• Ig Nobel Prize: The Ig Nobel Prizes are a satirical take on the Nobel Awards. They are a gentle mockery of
the kind of scientific studies being done around the world that sound ridiculous to the common observer.
Recent recipients of the award have included studies on “Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental
Floss,” “training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet,” and a discovery
that “black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell.”
• http://www.literarydevices.com/satire/
SIGNIFICANCE OF SATIRE IN
LITERATURE
Satire has been used as social criticism for a very long time, and has been discovered in
many different ancient cultures, from Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece to the Medieval
Islamic world.
As now, satire was used to ridicule government officials and reigning popular opinions.
Satire has a unique ability to confront public discourse and ridicule leaders into changing
their policies.
Some consider satire to be the best way to understand a culture, as it provides insights
into the collective psyche of a people and show who had power.
http://www.literarydevices.com/satire/
ANIMAL FARM BY GEORGE ORWELL
• George Orwell’s satire Animal Farm directly echoes the events of the Russian Revolution. He
replaces the Russian people with animals on a farm, with the leading figures of communism
represented by pigs.
• At first these pigs are supportive of equal rights for all animals, but gradually they give
themselves all the benefits and exclude the other animals from the rewards of the farm.
• The men who were expelled at the beginning of the story represent the Tsars; by the end of
the story, however, men are back on the farm and the animals outside cannot tell the difference
between the pigs and the men.
• Orwell used this satire example to show that the men who came to power after the Russian
Revolution were no more “equal” to the common people than the Tsars before them.
WHY DO SATIRISTS USE WIT?
• to make readers laugh at their own faults.
• They hope that readers will recognize their weaknesses and
correct them.
• It often combines incongruous ideas in a humorous and unexpected
way.
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or reform, honest reexamination of values, or development of new goals, attitudes, or
perspectives
WHY DO SATIRISTS USE FANTASY?
• to create a world where common sense has
collapsed.
• They call attention to social ills by presenting
readers with a distorted view of the world.
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or perspectives
WHY DO SATIRIST USE IRONY?
• to point out discrepancies between appearances and
reality and to criticize human weakness….(in an
effort to create change)
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or perspectives
WHY DO SATIRISTS USE SARCASM?
• to ridicule a subject.
• It is meant to be hurtful. ….(in an effort to create change)
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or perspectives
WHY DO SATIRISTS USE HYPERBOLE?
• to make something look ridiculous or worse
than it really is….
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or
perspectives
WHY DO SATIRISTS USE
UNDERSTATEMENT?
• to emphasize the enormity of a problem….(in an
effort to create change)
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or perspectives
CARICATURE
• Technique of exaggeration, to achieve a grotesque or
ridiculous effect, for a comic and satiric effect.
Caricature ludicrously exaggerates the peculiarities
or defects of the target.
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or
reform, honest re-examination of values, or
development of new goals, attitudes, or perspectives
LAMPOON
• Harsh and personal attack on a very particular, recognizable
target, often focusing on the target's character, behavior, or
habits
• In an effort to encourage real-world change or reform, honest
re-examination of values, or development of new goals,
attitudes, or perspectives
PARODY
• Deliberately seeks to ridicule another style. The writer
imitates the original very well, pushing it beyond its limits
and making it ridiculous
BURLESQUE
• Ridiculous exaggeration in language, usually one
which makes the discrepancy between the
word and the situation or the caricature silly.
KNOW THESE TERMS AS WELL…
• Dramatic irony
• When the audience knows more than the characters
• Verbal irony
• Occurs when what is said contradicts what is meant or thought
• Situational irony
• Occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite
from what one had expected
• More tools used in satire…..
• Imunition: Lessening; reduction in size
• Incongruity: Lack of harmony; absurdity; ADJ. incongruous: lacking in harmony; inappropriate
• Distortion:Taking something out of its ordinary surroundings sometimes reveals its idiocy or
inadequacies. Distortion unmasks an idea.
• Reversal: To present the opposite of the normal order, which is a type of distortion, by reversal
gets us to look at what should be by way of contrast
• Reduction: Look for caricatures or other ways to knock the corrupt and powerful off their
self-made pedestals. When a sneaky politician looks clownish in a cartoon, that's reduction.
WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND
SATIRE, WHAT THREE THINGS SHOULD
YOU LOOK FOR?
• Target, purpose, and techniques
• For homework: pick three cartoons from this PowerPoint, and in your
journal explain:
1. type of satire (horatian or juvenalian)
2. target of satire
3. Purpose of satire
4. And specific techniques used