Diminution (satire)

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Diminution is a satirical technique that aims to belittle a subject via description. The term, derived from "diminutive" meaning "small," was defined by critic John M. Bullitt as "speech which tends, either by the force of low or vulgar imagery, or by other suggestion, to depress an object below its usually accepted status." According to Bullitt, diminution can take the form of "ugly or homely images," comparisons to subjects considered to be inferior (with the implication that the thing being compared is inferior as well), focusing on a person's unappealing physical features, or using irony, meiosis, or litotes. [1]

Bullitt used the term to describe the writing of satirist Jonathan Swift -- for example, the associations of humans with animals Gulliver's Travels and "A Modest Proposal." [2] The term has since been associated with Flannery O'Connor [3] , Mark Twain [4] , Henry Fielding, [5] and Oliver Goldsmith. [6]

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A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it, but a parody can also be about a real-life person, event, or movement. Literary scholar Professor Simon Dentith defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice". The literary theorist Linda Hutcheon said "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, theater, television and film, animation, and gaming. Some parody is practiced in theater.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irony</span> Rhetorical device and literary technique

Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.

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Theriophily is "the inversion of human and animal traits and the argument that animals are in some way superior to men". The term theriophily was coined by George Boas, while the term animalitarianism was coined by Arthur O. Lovejoy in the work A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas, in which he explained his "belief that animals are happier, more admirable, more 'normal', or 'natural', than human beings" In his work Love for Animals, Dix Harwood wrote "This much is certain. Between 1700 and 1800, the point of view on man's relations to other living creatures changed". Leonardo da Vinci touches upon the subject in Studies on the Life and Habits of Animals.Rochester,in 'A Satyr against Mankind' would rather'be a dog, a monkey or a bear/Or anything but that vain animal/Who is so proud of being rational'. Jonathan Swift wrote about human inferiority in Gulliver's Travels and Mark Twain detailed various ways that humans could be shown to be inferior to other animals in Letters from the Earth.

References

  1. Bullitt, John M. (1953). Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire: A Study of Satiric Technique. Harvard University Press.
  2. Cook, Virgil Aldwin (1980). Jonathan Swift's Theory of Satire. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  3. Haar, Maria. "The Phenomenon of the Grotesque in Modern Southern Fiction" . Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  4. Covici, Jr., Pascal (24 October 2017). Sloane, David E. E. (ed.). "From the Old Southwest". Mark Twain's Humor: Critical Essays. ISBN   9781351403160 . Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  5. Levine, George R. (24 July 2015). Henry Fielding and the Dry Mock: A Study of the Techniques of Irony in His Early Works. De Gruyter. p. 21. ISBN   9783111400396 . Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  6. Hopkins, Robert Hazen (1969). The True Genius of Oliver Goldsmith. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 155. ISBN   9780801810169 . Retrieved 23 March 2023.