Parody. A satiric imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of
ridiculing the author, his ideas, or work.
The parody may also be focused on, say, an improbable plot with too many
convenient events..
Satire. A literary mode based on criticism of people and society through
ridicule.
The satirist aims to reduce the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at
them--and being witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also.
Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost
always present.
The satirist's goal is to point out the hypocrisy of his target in the hope that
either the target or the audience will return to a real following of the code.
Many of the techniques of satire are devices of comparison, to show the
similarity or contrast between two things; an oxymoron, metaphors, and so
forth are examples.
See "The Purpose and Method of Satire" for more information.
Candide
• Parody
– Imitation of a writer’s or genre’s style with use of
exaggeration for comic effect
• Satire
– Use of humor, exaggeration, irony to diminish,
expose, and criticize people’s views
– Uses attitudes of amusement and contempt
Parody
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/%22Weird_Al%22_Ya
nkovic
“This is absurd!”
Definitions:
Related to an idea or suggestion: wildly
unreasonable; illogical, or inappropriate
Related to a person’s behavior or action:
Foolish, unreasonable
Why is this
absurd????
Absurd!!
Voltaire
• Considered “the fountainhead of the Enlightenment
and the intellectual spearhead of the French
Revolution”
• A conservative in all but religion
• Believed in a God who was a creator and punisher of
evil, but he attacked any religion he felt to be guilty
of superstition, intolerance, or persecution
Influences
• Followers of optimism explained horrors away with
the idea that it was all for the best: the living would
inherit from the dead; the city would be rebuilt,
providing jobs.
• If it had not happened there, another place would
have suffered.
• Voltaire did not accept this. He wrote Candide to
illustrate what he perceived as the stupidity of this
type of optimism.
• He wrote the whole novel in three days at the age of
sixty-five.
Technique in Candide
• Voltaire intends for Candide to be a satirical
parody.
• He makes it a parody on the popular
adventure novel, and he attacks nearly
everything and everybody.
• It deals with the problem of evil, both natural
and man-made.
CANDIDE - Background
• Candide is subtitled “Optimism” and tells a
tale of the woes that befall a naïve simpleton
who is brought up to believe that this world is
the best of all possible worlds.
• The point of Voltaire’s story is to show how
Candide’s optimism is foolish in a world in
which people’s lives are shaped for the most
part by cruel and incomprehensible forces.
The plot of Candide takes the form of a quest:
• the young man’s quest for union with his beloved, Cunegonde.
• a series of separations and reunions, as Cunegonde is taken as
booty by the Bulgarians, held prisoner by the Grand Inquisitor,
and forcibly kept as a mistress by the Governor of Buenos
Aires—in this, the best of all possible worlds.
• What happens to Candide himself is no better
• the two lovers somehow survive
• tale is told with great verve and hilarity, and, like all quests of
this kind, the journey involves much suffering but ends in
wisdom.
• Voltaire makes fun of both the adventure novels and
the pastoral romance novels of his time:
•
•
•
•
•
shipwrecks
kidnappings by rival suitors
unexpected reunions between long-lost characters
love-sick heroes
far-off (and made-up) settings
Other examples
http://www.southparkstudios.com/fullepisodes/s10e06-manbearpig
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thuseptember-29-2011/democracy-on-thelurch
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/o
ndeadline/post/2011/10/2000-sharksslaughtered-off-colombia-for-their-fins/1
http://sendables.jibjab.com/origin
als/hes_barack_obama
http://www.theonion.com/video/presidentsapproval-rating-soars-after-punchingwa,26349/
Literary Focus
 A satire is a piece of writing in which the subject is exposed to ridicule of some
kind, usually in attempts to provoke or prevent a change. Satire can use any point
of view.
 A parody is a form of satire that mimics another piece of work in order to ridicule
it. Parodies exist in all forms of media, including music and movies. A parody is
generally written in a humorous manner, for the effect of comedy.
 In many cases, satire and parody overlap, but a satire isn't always a parody. A
satire doesn't have to be comedic (and is oftentimes quite the opposite), while a
parody almost always has some bit of humor involved in its creation (even if that
humor is only found by the author himself).
 satire's main purpose is to be political, social, or moral and not humorous. A
humorous satire tends to be so in subtle ways, usually utilizing deadpan or irony in
large
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