SATIRE

General Overview:

SATIRE: any piece of writing designed to make its readers feel critical—of themselves, of their fellow human beings, of their society.

Some satire intends to make us laugh at human foolishness and weakness; others make us angry and indignant at human vices and crimes.

Cont. Satirists are dissatisfied with things as they

are, and they want to make them better. Satirists know that human beings often don’t respond well to lecture or admonitions. To shake us out of our complacency and provoke us to hold the glass up to see ourselves and our world more honestly, they avoid offering straightforward advice.

Instead, they make fun of selfish, mean-spirited, or willfully ignorant people in the hope that we will see ourselves in such people and mend our ways.

Cont. Satire can cover a wide range of tones, from

gentle spoofing to savage mockery. The Simpsons version of LOTF does use some satire to make fun of how serious Golding is in light of the fact that children in general have not become LOTF-esque/evil in our world, but the thrust of the story is a parody:

the author is still illustrating evil in children that comes out without rules or adults (to the point of death) though their portrayal of Golding’s island thusly staying true to the original intent of LOTF.

DEVICES satirists employ:

EXAGGERATION: to enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen; every idea and concept is carried to the extreme, to capture the reader’s attention. No reasonable halfway measures are used--something is either ALL good or ALL bad.

2. UNDERSTATEMENT: the opposite of exaggeration (such as being casual and offhanded about something quite serious; making less of a deal of something than it is).

More devices 3. IRONY: things are just the opposite of what they

seem. Something small and trivial is made to seem important or serious; known as the “mountain out of a molehill” method. This can be reversed, as when something

very important is made trivial, to show that people aren’t paying enough attention to this problem. In either case, the subject is described as the opposite of what really exists.

4. INCONGRUITY: To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings; INCONGRUOUS JUXTAPOSITION: placing side by side two things that do not belong together.

Devices, cont. 5. REVERSAL: To present the opposite of

the normal order (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical order).

6. PARODY: To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing. Parody can cover a wide range of materials like

Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live to the Simpsons version of Lord of the Flies, to the articles from The Onion you are about to read.

The purpose of parody is usually gentle humor and mocking, but can be the central component in creating a satirical piece.

IMPORTANT:

SATIRE is not just a type of RHETORICAL ANALYSIS; it is an ARGUMENT; therefore, one should think about the speaker, audience, & subject and consider the creator’s choices/reasoning for constructing his argument in this manner.

The three Persuasive Appeals: Satirists will use these!

1. Logos appeals: appeal to logic; supporting a position with evidence, such as facts or statistics; 2. Pathos appeals: appeal to emotion; passages that use words that arouse strong feelings; 3. Ethos appeals: credibility; passages that establish the writer as sincere and qualified to make the remarks.

Satire can be directed at several kinds of TARGETS:

THE INDIVIDUAL -- the author makes fun of one person’s behavior and beliefs because he feels that the person is foolish or malicious. (Think of many of the SNL skits.)

THE GROUP -- the target can be a political party, a club, a social class, a profession, even a whole society.

THE “SYSTEM” -- this often involves large systems of beliefs, such as religion, or human nature in general. One example is Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” (which we will read).

FORMS Satirists Use:

1. FANTASY -- the setting of the satire is an imaginary world or time. It softens the criticism by removing it from reality. The idea behind it: people are more willing to consider criticism if the finger isn’t pointing directly at them.

2. MOCK HEROICS -- take the realistic problem or dispute and turn it into a highly exaggerated epic battle.

Cont.

3. FORMAL PROPOSAL -- prepare a highly serious, highly rational proposal for action on this problem, but make it totally unreasonable and exaggerated.

4. PRAISE/BLAME -- take something that is bad and praise it without boundary, or take something good and cut it to shreds. Either way, the reader will appreciate the irony the author intends.  

Satire in Cartoons

First, look at the satirical details. Characters: clothing, race, features, sex Setting: time of day, location, season,

signs/posters Dialogue: what is being said versus what

is being implied/tone of voice Second, try to determine the social

comment the artist is trying to make.

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Satirical Advertisements

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Satirical Advertisements

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Satirical Advertisements

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Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bznJf6_u4w&list=PLALiw550d1ZOU8wF1G2BxK6WKwNYqMjci

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNBP18nrRdw&list=PLALiw550d1ZOU8wF1G2BxK6WKwNYqMjci