A Few Words on Satire

SATIRE: A mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn. (The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms)

• From Latin satura, an abbreviated form of lanx satura, an abundant mixture, a hodgepodge (i.e., of public and private issues requiring severe criticism).

• There are two primary forms of satire:
  • Formal or direct satire: The narrator directly addresses the reader with explicit comments about the subject being satirized.
  • Indirect satire: Most common form in plays and novels; the author presents a situation and allows the reader (or viewer of a play) to draw his/her own conclusions.
• Satire can occur in novels, poetry, drama, and other literary and quasiliterary forms.
• Satire is often a response by a social outsider to the follies and antics of the powerful.

• The word satire refers to both:
  • (in general) the act of exposing a situation to ridicule; and
  • (specifically) a literary form that is primarily concerned with performing this ridicule.
• The 17th and 18th centuries are sometimes referred to as the Age of Satire in English literature.
  • Major practitioners in this period include Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
• Most 17th- and 18th-century satirists explicitly model their satires on Latin models, especially Horace and Juvenal.

• Satire can range in tone from gentle chiding to bitter excoriation.
• Historically, satire has generally tended toward didacticism.
• In order to criticize the follies of individuals or social groups, satire requires that its readers share a particular moral viewpoint with the author.
  • This is especially true for indirect satire.
• Hence, the satirist, in and by writing satire, elevates and promotes him- or herself as an authoritative judge of morality.

• Satirists often take the position of being humanistic in spirit, loving their fellow human beings and wanting to reform those who commit evil and folly in order to benefit all.
• British poet W.H. Auden takes a very traditional view of satire:

  Satire is angry and optimistic; it believes that, once people's attention is drawn to some evil, they will mend their ways.

  Forward to Angus Stewart’s Sense and Inconsequence (1972)

Menippean (or Varronian) Satire

• So-called after the (lost) works of the Greek Cynic philosopher Menippus (3rd century BCE), or his Roman imitator, Varro (1st century BCE)
• Characterized by:
  • miscellaneous contents
  • displays of erudition
  • comical discussions on philosophical topics
• An example you likely already know: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.