Satire
“The greatest satire not only fixes a moment of history in a frozen attitude of
absurdity, and makes the even a permanent and ludicrous warning to the future,
buy it tells the truth about the depths of human nature, which do not change.”
--from someone more articulate than your English teacher
Satire: A work or manner (of speech, writing or art) that blends a censorious
[critical] attitude with humor and wit for improving human institutions or humanity.
(A Handbook to Literature, 9th ed., Harmon and Holman)
Horatian: After the Roman satirist Horace: Satire in which the voice is
indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty.
Juvenalian: After the Roman satirist Juvenal: Formal satire in which the
speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation. Strong
contrast to Horatian satire.
Formal Satire:
Indirect Satire:
Techniques/devices
The following literary devices are by no means limited to satire nor are they an
exhaustive list of techniques a skilled satirist may employ, but they are among
the most frequently used in the genre.
Caricature: exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or
characteristics.
Hyperbole: an extravagant exaggeration for emphasis.
Understatement: to state or present with restraint especially for effect.
Litote: The opposite of a hyperbole. Contains an understatement for emphasis.
Often used with ironic intentions.
Grotesque/burlesque/travesty: a style of decorative art characterized by
fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage
or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness, or
caricature.
Parody: a literary work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated
for comic effect or in ridicule.
Mock epic: A work which employs the lofty manner, the high and serious tone
and the supernatural machinery of epic to treat of a trivial subject and
theme in such a way as to make both subject and theme ridiculous.
Reduction ad absurdum:
Allegory/fable: A story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a primary or
surface meaning; and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning.
Pun: the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or
more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.
Zeugma: the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in
such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense
with only one.
Antithesis/parallel structure: the rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of
parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences.
Juxtapositioning: the act of placing two or more things side by side.
Anti-climax: the usually sudden transition in discourse from a significant idea to
a trivial or ludicrous idea.
Repetition: An essential unifying element in nearly all poetry. Something said
over and over again.
Catalog: a complete enumeration of items arranged systematically with
descriptive details.
Persona: a character assumed by an author in a written work.
Naïf:
Sophisticate: to deprive of genuineness, naturalness, or simplicity. To
make complicated or complex
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one
kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or
analogy between them.
Irony: The opposite of what is expected to happen occurs.
Verbal Irony:
Sarcasm: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to
cut or give pain.
Tongue-in-cheek: insincerity, irony, or whimsical exaggeration.
Innuendo: an indirect allusion.
Double entendre: ambiguity of meaning arising from language that
lends itself to more than one interpretation.
Situational Irony:
Cosmic:
Dramatic: