WIT AND SATIREAlexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison

and Richard Steele, and Mary Wollstonecraft

WIT

•noun : an ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny• a person who is known for making clever and funny remarks

• the ability to relate seemingly disparate (different) things so as to illuminate or amuse

• a talent for banter or persiflage (a witty utterance or exchange)

• clever or apt humor

• a person of superior intellect : thinker

• an imaginatively perceptive and articulate individual especially skilled in banter

SATIRE

• a way of using humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad, etc. : humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person, government, society, etc.

• a book, movie, etc., that uses satire

• Satirists tend to take a problem or observation about another person, an aspect of their society, or government and use humor for the purpose of drawing attention to the problem or observation by mocking it.

PARODY

• a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing

• the genre of literary composition represented by such imitations

• verb (used with object), parodied, parodying. to imitate (a composition, author, etc.) for purposes of ridicule or satire.

• to imitate poorly or feebly; travesty.

• Video Link: http://youtu.be/Ze9xAIqZszw

MOCK EPIC

• Mock-epic poetry, one genre in literature, references classical works with humor in order to make a new point. Because it draws on well-known heroes or literary themes, mock-epic poetry is often able to form observations about contemporary culture, religion, and social issues in a funny, meaningful style.

• Mock-epic (also known as a mock-heroic) poetry draws heavily on the technique of satire, which means that it uses irony, exaggeration, and sarcasm to mock its original subject, usually in an undignified and grandiose manner.

EXAMPLES OF THE MOCK EPIC• Characteristics:

• Normally much shorter than true epics.• Satirize their subjects instead of extolling them. • Treat a trivial subject in a lofty fashion to make it appear ridiculous. • Mock epic uses epic conventions, but instead of describing battles and

perilous voyages across deep seas, authors depict card games and suitors vying for advantageous positions in the drawing room.

• Two examples are Pope's “Rape of the Lock” and Byron's “Don Juan.”

• Alexander Pope’s “Rape of the Lock” is a mock epic following the tradition of Homer’s The Iliad.

Citation: Lecture#3: Satire, epic and mock epic (2014). Cuyamaca College. Retrieved from

www.cuyamaca.edu/.../lec%203%20Satire,%20Epic%...

HORATIAN SATIRE

• After the Roman satirist Horace: 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 of a Juvenal, but a wry smile.

• Examples include:

• Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

• Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

• Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal

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.

• Examples include:

• William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

• Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal

HORATIAN VS. JUVENALIAN SATIRE