Created by Mrs. D. Wittmann
Is satire still possible in an era of fake news?
Horatian Satire Type of satire which pokes fun at human foibles with a witty even indulgent tone Humour without attack Tone: lightly humorous Juvenalian Satire Type of satire which denounces, sometimes with invective, human vice and error in dignified and solemn tones Attack without humour Tone: scathingly bitter
Horace (b. 65 B.C., d. 8 B.C.) followed Lucilius in using hexameters to ridicule folly and bad taste, and produced the ‘Sermones’ (30 B.C.), two books of discourses, conversational in style, humorous and urbane, dealing with a variety of subjects. These included incidents in the life of the poet, the follies and vices of mankind and his own poetical methods. Horace is particularly admired for his ability to “ridentem dicere verum” (“to tell the truth with a smile”), and his poems usually appear to pass gentle comment on the failings of mankind, rather than dealing with these faults with malice. Juvenal (b. A.D. 60-70) published his 16 Satires in five books in the second and third decades of the 2nd century A.D., during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Although Juvenal claims Horace and Lucilius as his masters, his poetry has none of their gentle humor. His Satires are notable for their bitter ironical humor, power of invective, grim epigram, sympathy with the poor and narrow-minded pessimism, whilst he attacks the rich and condemns the female sex. His linguistic register alternates violently between the elevated and the low.
CONTINUA HORATIAN ____________________________________ JUVENALIAN (gentle) (bitter) ATTACK – DIRECT ____________________________________ INDIRECT (little or no ironic diction) (much ironic diction) TARGET – TOPICAL ____________________________________ UNIVERSAL (short-lived, current) (long lived)
Vices and Follies Vice (n): any kind of anti-social behavior from moral depravity and corruption (ex. prostitution) to a habitual and trivial defect or shortcoming (ex. nose-picking). Because it covers everything from outright wickedness to petty foibles, almost all humans suffer from some kind of vice; thus, the satirist is never at a loss for material. Folly (n): a lack of common sense, prudence, and foresight. (ex. The folly of man is that he doesn’t understand that history repeats). “Folly” and “fool” come from the same French medieval root, fol. The good satirist knows that everyone, even the satirist himself, in time will do something really stupid.
The Seven Deadly Sins 1. Pride/arrogance/hubris 2. Avarice (greed) 3. Wrath (anger, violence, sullenness/sulking) 4. Sloth (laziness, indolence, slovenliness, sloppiness) 5. Lust 6. Envy 7. Gluttony (excessive love of material comforts, food, drink, etc.)
Stupidity Gullibility Poor decision making Short-sightedness Narrow mindedness Intolerance/prejudice Pettiness Careless use of language Lack of self control Indecisiveness Shallow flirtatiousness Vanity/conceit/egoism Self-centeredness Apathy Callousness Selfishness Corruption Wastefulness Hypocrisy Careless spending Dishonesty Irresponsibility Excess of any kind Willful ignorance Timidity Prudery Crime Boorishness Rudeness Gross conduct Silliness Immaturity Stubbornness
Other Vices and Follies
Examples of Non-Literary Satire Steven Colbert: Steven Colbert is a popular media figure who has built his career on pretending to be a self-righteous and highly opinionated commentator. His satire is based on parroting popular opinions or government officials’ ideas and taking them to the furthest extent, thereby revealing their hypocrisy. The Onion: The Onion is a fake news source that uses contemporary issues and highlights their absurdity. Some of the most popular headlines they’ve published include: “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over,'” “Supreme Court Rules Supreme Court Rules,” and “Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia; Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients. ”Ig Nobel Prize: The Ig Nobel Prizes are a satirical take on the Nobel Awards. They are a gentle mockery of the kind of scientific studies being done around the world that sound ridiculous to the common observer. Recent recipients of the award have included studies on “Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss,” “training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet,” and a discovery that “black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell.”
Examples of Satire in Literature Example #1 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, one of the leading satirists of his day, wrote Gulliver’s Travels as a satire of human nature and especially an anti-Whig satire. Lemuel Gulliver travels to several different lands, including the famous encounter with the Lilliputians, a society of people only a few inches tall. One example of satire in the book is that some Lilliputian men wear high heels and others wear low heels. The men who wear low heels are in power and will only appoint other men to government who wear low heels. Clearly, government appointments have nothing to do with ability—this is a direct attack on the separation of Whigs and Tories in English culture.
Example #2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain As is often the case, the satire in Huckleberry Finn is often misunderstood and misconstrued as Mark Twain’s actual opinions. Twain hated slavery and used Huckleberry Finn to point out the inhumane way that slave-owners treated slaves. While some contend that the book is racist, Twain was strongly against racism. He used the characters of Jim and Miss Watson, Jim’s owner, to highlight the hypocrisy of slavery. Miss Watson is called a “good Christian woman” so that readers may realize that what she purports to stand for is in direct opposition to her actions.
Example #3 Animal Farm by George Orwell George Orwell’s satire Animal Farm directly echoes the events of the Russian Revolution. He replaces the Russian people with animals on a farm, with the leading figures of communism represented by pigs. At first these pigs are supportive of equal rights for all animals, but gradually they give themselves all the benefits and exclude the other animals from the rewards of the farm. The men who were expelled at the beginning of the story represent the Tsars; by the end of the story, however, men are back on the farm and the animals outside cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the men. Orwell used this satire example to show that the men who came to power after the Russian Revolution were no more “equal” to the common people than the Tsars before them.
Example #4 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Joseph Heller’s World War II novel Catch-22 is a great example of satire. Joseph Heller had flown bomber missions in WWII, just like his main character Captain John Yossarian, and was tortured by the experience. He found the wartime bureaucracy and logic to be incredibly hypocritical. The most famous example of satire in the book comes from the title, the concept of the Catch 22. This is one of those bureaucratic nightmares in which something can only be done when the thing that precludes it from happening happens. Yossarian eventually discovers that the catch doesn’t even exist, but because everything thinks it does it still has the same effect. And, unfortunately, because it doesn’t exist it can’t be repealed. This is a good metaphor for the entire lack of logic in bureaucracy.
Satire always has a target Often Used Devices: diction, hyperbole, capitalization, alliteration, repetition, verbal irony, diction, incongruent details, understatement, malapropism, oxymoron, irony Analyzing Satire: Target: ie. government Devices: ie. parody, repetition Type (tone): Horatian or Juvenalian Placement: on the continuum Articulation: give your rational – explain your placement
Rate the Tone Place a mark on the continuum below and label it with a tone word(s). Zero indicates the lightest possible satire with becoming fantasy or romance. Look for and label any shifts in tone. A mark close to 180 indicates a harsh, bitter satire close to becoming invective or tragic. 0 90 180 Romance Invective _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Horatian Juvenalian