1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a great deal of satire of the contemporary, social, and political scene
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.
Satire is found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes, literature, plays, commentary, music, film and television shows, and media such as lyrics.
Etymology and roots
The word satire comes from the Latin word satur and the subsequent phrase lanx satura.Satur meant "full", but the juxtaposition with lanx shifted the meaning to "miscellany or medley": the expression lanx satura literally means "a full dish of various kinds of fruits".[4] The use of the word lanx in this phrase, however, is disputed by B.L. Ullman.[5]
The word satura as used by Quintilian, however, was used to denote only Roman verse satire, a strict genre that imposed hexameter form, a narrower genre than what would be later intended as satire.[4][6] Quintilian famously said that satura, that is a satire in hexameter verses, was a literary genre of wholly Roman origin (satura tota nostra est). He was aware of and commented on Greek satire, but at the time did not label it as such, although today the origin of satire is considered to be Aristophanes' Old Comedy. The first critic to use the term satire in the modern broader sense was Apuleius.[4]
To Quintilian, the satire was a strict literary form, but the term soon escaped from the original narrow definition. Robert Elliott writes:
As soon as a noun enters the domain of metaphor, as one modern scholar has pointed out, it clamours for extension; and satura (which had had no verbal, adverbial, or adjectival forms) was immediately broadened by appropriation from the Greek word for "satyr" (satyros) and its derivatives. The odd result is that the English "satire" comes from the Latin satura; but "satirize", "satiric", etc., are of Greek origin. By about the 4th century AD the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus; St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies 'a satirist in prose' ('satyricus scriptor in prosa'). Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the word satire: satura becomes satyra, and in England, by the 16th century, it was written 'satyre.'[1]
The word satire derives from satura, and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr.[7] In the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time.[8]
Humour
The rules of satire are such that it must do more than make you laugh. No matter how amusing it is, it doesn't count unless you find yourself wincing a little even as you chuckle.[9]
Laughter is not an essential component of satire;[10] in fact, there are types of satire that are not meant to be "funny" at all. Conversely, not all humour, even on such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily "satirical", even when it uses the satirical tools of irony, parody, and burlesque.
Even light-hearted satire has a serious "after-taste": the organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize describe this as "first make people laugh, and then make them think".[11]
Satire and irony in some cases have been regarded as the most effective source to understand a society, the oldest form of social study.[12] They provide the keenest insights into a group's collective psyche, reveal its deepest values and tastes, and the society's structures of power.[13][14] Some authors have regarded satire as superior to non-comic and non-artistic disciplines like history or anthropology.[12][15][16][17] In a prominent example from ancient Greece, philosopher Plato, when asked by a friend for a book to understand Athenian society, referred him to the plays of Aristophanes.[18][19]
Historically, satire has satisfied the popular need to debunk and ridicule the leading figures in politics, economy, religion and other prominent realms of power.[20] Satire confronts public discourse and the collective imaginary, playing as a public opinion counterweight to power (be it political, economic, religious, symbolic, or otherwise), by challenging leaders and authorities. For instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies. Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, and it is not obligated to solve them.[21]Karl Kraus set in the history of satire a prominent example of a satirist role as confronting public discourse.[22]
For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions.[23] The satiric impulse, and its ritualized expressions, carry out the function of resolving social tension.[24] Institutions like the ritual clowns, by giving expression to the antisocial tendencies, represent a safety valve which re-establishes equilibrium and health in the collective imaginary, which are jeopardized by the repressive aspects of society.[25][26]
The state of political satire in a given society reflects the tolerance or intolerance that characterizes it,[20] and the state of civil liberties and human rights. Under totalitarian regimes any criticism of a political system, and especially satire, is suppressed. A typical example is the Soviet Union where the dissidents, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were under strong pressure from the government. While satire of everyday life in the USSR was allowed, the most prominent satirist being Arkady Raikin, political satire existed in the form of anecdotes[27] that made fun of Soviet political leaders, especially Brezhnev, famous for his narrow-mindedness and love for awards and decorations.
Classifications
Satire is a diverse genre which is complex to classify and define, with a wide range of satiric "modes".[28][29]
Horatian, Juvenalian, Menippean
"Le satire e l'epistole di Q. Orazio Flacco", printed in 1814
Satirical literature can commonly be categorized as either Horatian, Juvenalian, or Menippean.[30]
Horatian
Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) wrote Satires to gently ridicule the dominant opinions and "philosophical beliefs of ancient Rome and Greece".[31] Rather than writing in harsh or accusing tones, he addressed issues with humor and clever mockery. Horatian satire follows this same pattern of "gently [ridiculing] the absurdities and follies of human beings".[32]
It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil. Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society.[33] A Horatian satirist's goal is to heal the situation with smiles, rather than by anger. Horatian satire is a gentle reminder to take life less seriously and evokes a wry smile.[32]
Juvenalian satire, named for the writings of the Roman satirist Juvenal (late first century – early second century AD), is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of the public figures and institutions of the Republic and actively attacked them through his literature. "He utilized the satirical tools of exaggeration and parody to make his targets appear monstrous and incompetent".[34] Juvenal's satire follows this same pattern of abrasively ridiculing societal structures. Juvenal also, unlike Horace, attacked public officials and governmental organizations through his satires, regarding their opinions as not just wrong, but evil.
Following in this tradition, Juvenalian satire addresses perceived social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic, characterized by the use of irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire can often be classified as Juvenalian.
A Juvenal satirist's goal is generally to provoke some sort of political or societal change because he sees his opponent or object as evil or harmful.[35] A Juvenal satirist mocks "societal structure, power, and civilization"[36] by exaggerating the words or position of his opponent in order to jeopardize their opponent's reputation and/or power. Jonathan Swift has been established as an author who "borrowed heavily from Juvenal's techniques in [his critique] of contemporary English society".[34]
In the history of theatre there has always been a conflict between engagement and disengagement on politics and relevant issue, between satire and grotesque on one side, and jest with teasing on the other.[37]Max Eastman defined the spectrum of satire in terms of "degrees of biting", as ranging from satire proper at the hot-end, and "kidding" at the violet-end; Eastman adopted the term kidding to denote what is just satirical in form, but is not really firing at the target.[38]Nobel laureate satirical playwright Dario Fo pointed out the difference between satire and teasing (sfottò).[39] Teasing is the reactionary side of the comic; it limits itself to a shallow parody of physical appearance. The side-effect of teasing is that it humanizes and draws sympathy for the powerful individual towards which it is directed. Satire instead uses the comic to go against power and its oppressions, has a subversive character, and a moral dimension which draws judgement against its targets.[40][41][42][43] Fo formulated an operational criterion to tell real satire from sfottò, saying that real satire arouses an outraged and violent reaction, and that the more they try to stop you, the better is the job you are doing.[44] Fo contends that, historically, people in positions of power have welcomed and encouraged good-humoured buffoonery, while modern day people in positions of power have tried to censor, ostracize and repress satire.[37][40]
Teasing (sfottò) is an ancient form of simple buffoonery, a form of comedy without satire's subversive edge. Teasing includes light and affectionate parody, good-humoured mockery, simple one-dimensional poking fun, and benign spoofs. Teasing typically consists of an impersonation of someone monkeying around with his exterior attributes, tics, physical blemishes, voice and mannerisms, quirks, way of dressing and walking, and/or the phrases he typically repeats. By contrast, teasing never touches on the core issue, never makes a serious criticism judging the target with irony; it never harms the target's conduct, ideology and position of power; it never undermines the perception of his morality and cultural dimension.[40][42]Sfottò directed towards a powerful individual makes him appear more human and draws sympathy towards him.[45]Hermann Göring propagated jests and jokes against himself, with the aim of humanizing his image.[46][47]
Classifications by topics
Types of satire can also be classified according to the topics it deals with. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes, the primary topics of literary satire have been politics, religion and sex.[48][49][50][51] This is partly because these are the most pressing problems that affect anybody living in a society, and partly because these topics are usually taboo.[48][52] Among these, politics in the broader sense is considered the pre-eminent topic of satire.[52] Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs.[53] Satire on sex may overlap with blue comedy, off-color humor and dick jokes.
Another classification by topics is the distinction between political satire, religious satire and satire of manners.[64] Political satire is sometimes called topical satire, satire of manners is sometimes called satire of everyday life, and religious satire is sometimes called philosophical satire. Comedy of manners, sometimes also called satire of manners, criticizes mode of life of common people; political satire aims at behavior, manners of politicians, and vices of political systems. Historically, comedy of manners, which first appeared in British theater in 1620, has uncritically accepted the social code of the upper classes.[65] Comedy in general accepts the rules of the social game, while satire subverts them.[66]
The type of humour that deals with creating laughter at the expense of the person telling the joke is called reflexive humour.[69] Reflexive humour can take place at dual levels of directing humour at self or at the larger community the self identifies with. The audience's understanding of the context of reflexive humour is important for its receptivity and success.[69] Satire is found not only in written literary forms. In preliterate cultures it manifests itself in ritual and folk forms, as well as in trickster tales and oral poetry.[24]
The satirical papyrus at the British MuseumSatirical ostracon showing a cat guarding geese, c.1120 BC, EgyptFigured ostracon showing a cat waiting on a mouse, Egypt
One of the earliest examples of what might be called satire, The Satire of the Trades,[71] is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is not only useful, but far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck[72] think that the context was meant to be serious.
The Papyrus Anastasi I[73] (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements.
Ancient Greece
The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although the terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the Greek playwrightAristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and societal commentary,[74] particularly for the political satire by which he criticized the powerful Cleon (as in The Knights). He is also notable for the persecution he underwent.[74][75][76][77] Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease.[78] His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander. His early play Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician Callimedon.
The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippus of Gadara. His own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of diatribe. As in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease.[78]
Ancient China
Satire, or fengci (諷刺) the way it is called in Chinese, goes back at least to Confucius, being mentioned in the Book of Odes (Shijing 詩經). It meant "to criticize by means of an ode". In the pre-Qin era it was also common for schools of thought to clarify their views through the use of short explanatory anecdotes, also called yuyan (寓言), translated as "entrusted words". These yuyan usually were brimming with satirical content. The Daoist text Zhuangzi is the first to define this concept of Yuyan. During the Qin and Han dynasty, however, the concept of yuyan mostly died out through their heavy persecution of dissent and literary circles, especially by Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi.[79]
Roman world
The first Roman to discuss satire critically was Quintilian, who invented the term to describe the writings of Gaius Lucilius. The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are Horace and Juvenal, who wrote during the early days of the Roman Empire. Other important satirists in ancient Latin are Gaius Lucilius and Persius. Satire in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized Augustus, he used veiled ironic terms. In contrast, Pliny reports that the 6th-century-BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.[80]
In the 2nd century AD, Lucian wrote True History, a book satirizing the clearly unrealistic travelogues/adventures written by Ctesias, Iambulus, and Homer. He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like them, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did. He goes on to describe a far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a 200 mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like Indica and The Odyssey.
Medieval Arabic poetry included the satiric genre hija. Satire was introduced into Arabic prose literature by the author Al-Jahiz in the 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology, sociology and psychology, he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations. He was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in hija, satirical poetry."[81] For example, in one of his zoological works, he satirized the preference for longer human penis size, writing: "If the length of the penis were a sign of honor, then the mule would belong to the (honorable tribe of) Quraysh". Another satirical story based on this preference was an Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member".[82]
In the 10th century, the writer Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return.[83] An example of Arabic political satire included another 10th-century poet Jarir satirizing Farazdaq as "a transgressor of the Sharia" and later Arabic poets in turn using the term "Farazdaq-like" as a form of political satire.[84]
The terms "comedy" and "satire" became synonymous after Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by Islamic philosophers and writers, such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or troubled beginnings and happy endings, associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature.[85]
Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices. He wrote the Resaleh-ye Delgosha, as well as Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature. Between 1905 and 1911, Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires.
Medieval Europe
In the Early Middle Ages, examples of satire were the songs by Goliards or vagants now best known as an anthology called Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th-century composer Carl Orff. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the High Middle Ages and the birth of modern vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by Chaucer. The disrespectful manner was considered "unchristian" and ignored, except for the moral satire, which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are Livre des Manières by Étienne de Fougères[fr] (~1178), and some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Sometimes epic poetry (epos) was mocked, and even feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre.
In the High Middle Ages the work Reynard the Fox, written by Willem die Madoc maecte, and its translations were a popular work that satirized the class system at the time. Representing the various classes as certain anthropomorphic animals. As example, the lion in the story represents the nobility, which is portrayed as being weak and without character, but very greedy. Versions of Reynard the Fox were also popular well into the early modern period. The dutch translation Van den vos Reynaerde is considered a major medieval dutch literary work. In the dutch version De Vries argues that the animal characters represent barons who conspired against the Count of Flanders.[86]
The Elizabethan (i.e. 16th-century English) writers thought of satire as related to the notoriously rude, coarse and sharp satyr play. Elizabethan "satire" (typically in pamphlet form) therefore contains more straightforward abuse than subtle irony. The French HuguenotIsaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), and the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again. Seventeenth-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" (Dryden).
In the 1590s a new wave of verse satire broke with the publication of Hall's Virgidemiarum, six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen. Although Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model.[87][pageneeded] The success of his work combined with a national mood of disillusion in the last years of Elizabeth's reign triggered an avalanche of satire—much of it less conscious of classical models than Hall's — until the fashion was brought to an abrupt stop by censorship.[note 1]
Another satiric genre to emerge around this time was the satirical almanac, with François Rabelais's work Pantagrueline Prognostication (1532), which mocked astrological predictions. The strategies François utilized within this work were employed by later satirical almanacs, such as the Poor Robin series that spanned the 17th to 19th centuries.[89]
Ancient and modern India
Satire (Kataksh or Vyang) has played a prominent role in Indian and Hindi literature, and is counted as one of the "ras" of literature in ancient books.[90] With the commencement of printing of books in local language in the nineteenth century and especially after India's freedom, this grew.[91] Many of the works of Tulsi Das, Kabir, Munshi Premchand,[92][93] village minstrels, Hari katha singers, poets, Dalit singers and current day stand up Indian comedians incorporate satire, usually ridiculing authoritarians, fundamentalists and incompetent people in power.[94][95][96] In India, it has usually been used as a means of expression and an outlet for common people to express their anger against authoritarian entities.[97] A popular custom in Northern India of "Bura na mano Holi hai" continues, in which comedians on the stage mock local people of importance (who are usually brought in as special guests).[98][99][100]
Age of Enlightenment
'A Welch wedding' satirical cartoon c.1780
The Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries advocating rationality, produced a great revival of satire in Britain. This was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the formalisation of the Tory and Whig parties—and also, in 1714, by the formation of the Scriblerus Club, which included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Robert Harley, Thomas Parnell, and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. This club included several of the notable satirists of early-18th-century Britain. They focused their attention on Martinus Scriblerus, "an invented learned fool... whose work they attributed all that was tedious, narrow-minded, and pedantic in contemporary scholarship".[101] In their hands astute and biting satire of institutions and individuals became a popular weapon. The turn to the 18th century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire, to biting "juvenal" satire.[102]
Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty. His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book Gulliver's Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire"[103] that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world. His satirical Mac Flecknoe was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical Dunciad.
Alexander Pope (b. May 21, 1688) was a satirist known for his Horatian satirist style and translation of the Iliad. Famous throughout and after the long 18th century, Pope died in 1744.[104] Pope, in his The Rape of the Lock, is delicately chiding society in a sly but polished voice by holding up a mirror to the follies and vanities of the upper class. Pope does not actively attack the self-important pomp of the British aristocracy, but rather presents it in such a way that gives the reader a new perspective from which to easily view the actions in the story as foolish and ridiculous. A mockery of the upper class, more delicate and lyrical than brutal, Pope nonetheless is able to effectively illuminate the moral degradation of society to the public. The Rape of the Lock assimilates the masterful qualities of a heroic epic, such as the Iliad, which Pope was translating at the time of writing The Rape of the Lock. However, Pope applied these qualities satirically to a seemingly petty egotistical elitist quarrel to prove his point wryly.[105] Other satirical works by Pope include the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.
The pictorial satire of William Hogarth is a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England.[106] The medium developed under the direction of its greatest exponent, James Gillray from London.[107] With his satirical works calling the king (George III), prime ministers and generals (especially Napoleon) to account, Gillray's wit and keen sense of the ridiculous made him the pre-eminent cartoonist of the era.[107]
Ebenezer Cooke (1665–1732), author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1708), was among the first writers of literary satire in Colonial America. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous.
Satire in Victorian England
A Victorian satirical sketch depicting a gentleman's donkey race in 1852
Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the Victorian era (1837–1901) and Edwardian period, such as Punch (1841) and Fun (1861).
Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In fact, in The Yeomen of the Guard, a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert's own intent:
"I can set a braggart quailing with a quip,
The upstart I can wither with a whim;
He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip,
But his laughter has an echo that is grim!"
Novelists such as Charles Dickens (1812–1870) often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues.
Continuing the tradition of Swiftian journalistic satire, Sidney Godolphin Osborne (1808–1889) was the most prominent writer of scathing "Letters to the Editor" of the London Times. Famous in his day, he is now all but forgotten. His maternal grandfather William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland was considered to be a possible candidate for the authorship of the Junius letters. Osborne's satire was so bitter and biting that at one point he received a public censure from Parliament's then Home Secretary Sir James Graham. Osborne wrote mostly in the Juvenalian mode over a wide range of topics mostly centered on British government's and landlords' mistreatment of poor farm workers and field laborers. He bitterly opposed the New Poor Laws and was passionate on the subject of the British government's botched response to the Great Irish Famine and the mistreatment of British soldiers during the Crimean War.
Later in the nineteenth century, in the United States, Mark Twain (1835–1910) grew to become American's greatest satirist: his novel Huckleberry Finn (1884) is set in the antebellum South, where the moral values Twain wishes to promote are completely turned on their heads. His hero, Huck, is a rather simple but goodhearted lad who is ashamed of the "sinful temptation" that leads him to help a fugitive slave. In fact his conscience, warped by the distorted moral world he has grown up in, often bothers him most when he is at his best. He is prepared to do good, believing it to be wrong.
Twain's younger contemporary Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) gained notoriety as a cynic, pessimist and black humorist with his dark, bitterly ironic stories, many set during the American Civil War, which satirized the limitations of human perception and reason. Bierce's most famous work of satire is probably The Devil's Dictionary (1906), in which the definitions mock cant, hypocrisy and received wisdom.
20th-century satire
Karl Kraus is considered the first major European satirist since Jonathan Swift.[22] In 20th-century literature, satire was used by English authors such as Aldous Huxley (1930s) and George Orwell (1940s), which under the inspiration of Zamyatin's Russian 1921 novel We, made serious and even frightening commentaries on the dangers of the sweeping social changes taking place throughout Europe. Anatoly Lunacharsky wrote 'Satire attains its greatest significance when a newly evolving class creates an ideology considerably more advanced than that of the ruling class, but has not yet developed to the point where it can conquer it. Herein lies its truly great ability to triumph, its scorn for its adversary and its hidden fear of it. Herein lies its venom, its amazing energy of hate, and quite frequently, its grief, like a black frame around glittering images. Herein lie its contradictions, and its power.'[110] Many social critics of this same time in the United States, such as Dorothy Parker and H. L. Mencken, used satire as their main weapon, and Mencken in particular is noted for having said that "one horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms" in the persuasion of the public to accept a criticism. Novelist Sinclair Lewis was known for his satirical stories such as Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Elmer Gantry (1927; dedicated by Lewis to H. L. Mencken), and It Can't Happen Here (1935), and his books often explored and satirized contemporary American values. The film The Great Dictator (1940) by Charlie Chaplin is itself a parody of Adolf Hitler; Chaplin later declared that he would have not made the film if he had known about the concentration camps.[111]
Modern Soviet satire was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s. This form of satire is recognized by its level of sophistication and intelligence used, along with its own level of parody. Since there is no longer the need of survival or revolution to write about, modern Soviet satire focused on the quality of life.[112]
Benzino Napaloni and Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator (1940).
Joseph Heller's most famous work, Catch-22 (1961), satirizes bureaucracy and the military, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.[117] Departing from traditional Hollywood farce and screwball, director and comedian Jerry Lewis used satire in his self-directed films The Bellboy (1960), The Errand Boy (1961) and The Patsy (1964) to comment on celebrity and the star-making machinery of Hollywood.[118] The film Dr. Strangelove (1964) starring Peter Sellers was a popular satire on the Cold War. Sellers and the British satire boom had a direct influence on the comedy troupe Monty Python.[119]Empire magazine called Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) "an unrivalled satire on religion".[120]
Contemporary satire
Contemporary popular usage of the term "satire" is often very imprecise. While satire often uses caricature and parody, by no means are all uses of these or other humorous devices satiric. Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article. The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire also warns of the ambiguous nature of satire:
[W]hile "satire," or perhaps rather "satiric(al)," are words we run up against constantly in analyses of contemporary culture [...], the search for any defining formal charcteristic (sic) [of satire] that will link past to present may turn out to be more frustrating than enlightening.[121]
Satire is used on many UK television programmes, particularly popular panel shows and quiz shows such as Mock the Week (2005–2022) and Have I Got News for You (1990–ongoing). It is found on radio quiz shows such as The News Quiz (1977–ongoing) and The Now Show (1998–2024). One of the most watched UK television shows of the 1980s and early 1990s, the puppet show Spitting Image was a satire of the royal family, politics, entertainment, sport and British culture of the era.[122]Court Flunkey from Spitting Image is a caricature of James Gillray, intended as a homage to the father of political cartooning.[123]
In the United States, Stephen Colbert's television program, The Colbert Report (2005–14) is instructive in the methods of contemporary American satire; sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live is also known for its satirical impressions and parodies of prominent persons and politicians, among some of the most notable, their parodies of U.S. political figures Hillary Clinton[134] and of Sarah Palin.[135]Colbert's character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points and wags his finger at them, and "unwittingly" uses a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political satire: the ridicule of the actions of politicians and other public figures by taking all their statements and purported beliefs to their furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, thus revealing their perceived hypocrisy or absurdity.
In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist was the late Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the internationally best-selling Discworld book series. One of the most well-known and controversial British satirists is Chris Morris, co-writer and director of Four Lions.
In Canada, satire has become an important part of the comedy scene. Stephen Leacock was one of the best known early Canadian satirists, and in the early 20th century, he achieved fame by targeting the attitudes of small-town life. In more recent years, Canada has had several prominent satirical television series and radio shows. Some, including CODCO, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Is That, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes deal directly with current news stories and political figures, while others, like History Bites present contemporary social satire in the context of events and figures in history. The Beaverton is a Canadian news satire site similar to The Onion. Canadian songwriter Nancy White uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on CBC Radio.
In Hong Kong, there was a well-known Australian Kim Jong-unimpersonatorHoward X whom often utilised satire to show his support for Hong Kong city's pro-democracy movements and liberation of North Korea. He believed that humour is a very powerful weapon and he often made it clear that he imitates the dictator to satirize him, not to glorify him. Throughout his career as a professional impersonator, he had also worked with multiple organisations and celebrities to create parodies and to stir up conversations of politics and human rights.[136]
Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour. Al Capp's satirical comic stripLi'l Abner was censored in September 1947. The controversy, as reported in Time, centred on Capp's portrayal of the US Senate. Said Edward Leech of Scripps-Howard, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables."[137]Walt Kelly's Pogo was likewise censored in 1952 over his overt satire of Senator Joe McCarthy, caricatured in his comic strip as "Simple J. Malarky". Garry Trudeau, whose comic stripDoonesbury focuses on satire of the political system, and provides a trademark cynical view on national events. Trudeau exemplifies humour mixed with criticism. For example, the character Mark Slackmeyer lamented that because he was not legally married to his partner, he was deprived of the "exquisite agony" of experiencing a nasty and painful divorce like heterosexuals. This, of course, satirized the claim that gay unions would denigrate the sanctity of heterosexual marriage.
Like some literary predecessors, many recent television satires contain strong elements of parody and caricature; for instance, the popular animated series The Simpsons and South Park both parody modern family and social life by taking their assumptions to the extreme; both have led to the creation of similar series. As well as the purely humorous effect of this sort of thing, they often strongly criticise various phenomena in politics, economic life, religion and many other aspects of society, and thus qualify as satirical. Due to their animated nature, these shows can easily use images of public figures and generally have greater freedom to do so than conventional shows using live actors.
In an interview with Wikinews, Sean Mills, President of The Onion, said angry letters about their news parody always carried the same message. "It's whatever affects that person", said Mills. "So it's like, 'I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that's not funny to me.' Or someone else can say, 'Cancer's hilarious, but don't talk about rape because my cousin got raped.' Those are rather extreme examples, but if it affects somebody personally, they tend to be more sensitive about it."[138]
Satire is also gaining recognition for its value in social science research, particularly when authors are seeking to unpack complex social issues like gendered racism.[139]
Techniques
Literary satire is usually written out of earlier satiric works, reprising previous conventions, commonplaces, stance, situations and tones of voice.[140]Exaggeration is one of the most common satirical techniques.[3] Contrarily diminution is also a satirical technique.
Legal status
For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions.[23] In Germany,[141]Japan, and Italy[20][142] satire is protected by the constitution.
Since satire belongs to the realm of art and artistic expression, it benefits from broader lawfulness limits than mere freedom of information of journalistic kind.[142] In some countries a specific "right to satire" is recognized and its limits go beyond the "right to report" of journalism and even the "right to criticize".[142] Satire benefits not only of the protection to freedom of speech, but also to that to culture, and that to scientific and artistic production.[20][142]
In September 2017 The Juice Media received an e-mail from the Australian National Symbols Officer requesting that the use of a satirical logo, called the "Coat of Harms" based on the Australian Coat of Arms, no longer be used as they had received complaints from the members of the public.[143] Coincidentally 5 days later a Bill was proposed to Australian parliament to amend the Criminal Code Act 1995.[144] If passed, those found to be in breach of the new amendment can face 2–5 years imprisonment.[145]
As of June 2018, the Criminal Code Amendment (Impersonating a Commonwealth Body) Bill 2017 was before the Australian Senate with the third reading moved May 10, 2018.[146]
Censorship and criticism
Descriptions of satire's biting effect on its target include 'venomous', 'cutting', 'stinging',[147] vitriol. Because satire often combines anger and humor, as well as the fact that it addresses and calls into question many controversial issues, it can be profoundly disturbing.[by whom?]
Typical arguments
Because it is essentially ironic or sarcastic, satire is often misunderstood. A typical misunderstanding is to confuse the satirist with their persona.[148]
Bad taste
Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion (accusations of poor taste, or that "it's just not funny" for instance) and the idea that the satirist actually does support the ideas, policies, or people being ridiculed. For instance, at the time of its publication, many people misunderstood Swift's purpose in A Modest Proposal, assuming it to be a serious recommendation of economically motivated cannibalism.[citation needed] Much later in history, in the weeks following 9/11 the American public at large found works of satire to be in bad taste and not appropriate for the social climate at the time. Some media outlets at the time, like essayist Roger Rosenblatt in an editorial for Time magazine's September 24 issue, would go so far as to claim that irony was dead.[149]
Targeting the victim
Some critics of Mark Twain see Huckleberry Finn as racist and offensive, missing the point that its author clearly intended it to be satire (racism being in fact only one of a number of Mark Twain's known concerns attacked in Huckleberry Finn).[150][151] This same misconception was suffered by the main character of the 1960s British television comedy satire Till Death Us Do Part. The character of Alf Garnett (played by Warren Mitchell) was created to poke fun at the kind of narrow-minded, racist, little Englander that Garnett represented. Instead, his character became a sort of anti-hero to people who actually agreed with his views. (The same situation occurred with Archie Bunker in American TV show All in the Family, a character derived directly from Garnett.[citation needed])
The Australian satirical television comedy show The Chaser's War on Everything has suffered repeated attacks based on various perceived interpretations of the "target" of its attacks. The "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch (June 2009), which attacked in classical satiric fashion the heartlessness of people who are reluctant to donate to charities, was widely interpreted as an attack on the Make a Wish Foundation, or even the terminally ill children helped by that organisation. Prime Minister of the time Kevin Rudd stated that The Chaser team "should hang their heads in shame". He went on to say that "I didn't see that but it's been described to me. ...But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale."[152] Television station management suspended the show for two weeks and reduced the third season to eight episodes.
Romantic prejudice
The romantic prejudice against satire is the belief spread by the romantic movement that satire is something unworthy of serious attention; this prejudice has held considerable influence to this day.[153] Such prejudice extends to humour and everything that arouses laughter, which are often underestimated as frivolous and unworthy of serious study.[154] For instance, humor is generally neglected as a topic of anthropological research and teaching.[155]
History of opposition toward notable satires
Because satire criticises in an ironic, essentially indirect way, it frequently escapes censorship in a way more direct criticism might not. Periodically, however, it runs into serious opposition, and people in power who perceive themselves as attacked attempt to censor it or prosecute its practitioners. In a classic example, Aristophanes was persecuted by the demagogueCleon.
The motives for the ban are obscure, particularly since some of the books banned had been licensed by the same authorities less than a year earlier. Various scholars have argued that the target was obscenity, libel, or sedition. It seems likely that lingering anxiety about the Martin Marprelate controversy, in which the bishops themselves had employed satirists, played a role; both Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey, two of the key figures in that controversy, suffered a complete ban on all their works. In the event, though, the ban was little enforced, even by the licensing authority itself.
21st-century polemics
In 2005, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy caused global protests by offended Muslims and violent attacks with many fatalities in the Near East. It was not the first case of Muslim protests against criticism in the form of satire, but the Western world was surprised by the hostility of the reaction: Any country's flag in which a newspaper chose to publish the parodies was being burnt in a Near East country, then embassies were attacked, killing 139 people in mainly four countries; politicians throughout Europe agreed that satire was an aspect of the freedom of speech, and therefore to be a protected means of dialogue. Iran threatened to start an International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, which was immediately responded to by Jews with an Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest.
In 2008, popular South African cartoonist and satirist Jonathan Shapiro (who is published under the pen name Zapiro) came under fire for depicting then-president of the ANCJacob Zuma in the act of undressing in preparation for the implied rape of 'Lady Justice' which is held down by Zuma loyalists.[157] The cartoon was drawn in response to Zuma's efforts to duck corruption charges, and the controversy was heightened by the fact that Zuma was himself acquitted of rape in May 2006. In February 2009, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, viewed by some opposition parties as the mouthpiece of the governing ANC,[158] shelved a satirical TV show created by Shapiro,[159] and in May 2009 the broadcaster pulled a documentary about political satire (featuring Shapiro among others) for the second time, hours before scheduled broadcast.[160]
On December 29, 2009, Samsung sued Mike Breen, and the Korea Times for $1million, claiming criminal defamation over a satirical column published on Christmas Day, 2009.[161][162]
On April 29, 2015, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) requested Kent Police investigate the BBC, claiming that comments made about Party leader Nigel Farage by a panelist on the comedy show Have I Got News For You might hinder his chances of success in the general election (which would take place a week later), and claimed the BBC breached the Representation of the People Act.[163] Kent Police rebuffed the request to open an investigation, and the BBC released a statement, "Britain has a proud tradition of satire, and everyone knows that the contributors on Have I Got News for You regularly make jokes at the expense of politicians of all parties."[163]
Satirical prophecy
Satire is occasionally prophetic: the jokes precede actual events.[164][165] Among the eminent examples are:
The 1784 presaging of modern daylight saving time, later actually proposed in 1907. While an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin anonymously published a letter in 1784 suggesting that Parisians economise on candles by arising earlier to use morning sunlight.[166]
The second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which debuted in 1969, featured a sketch entitled "The Mouse Problem" (meant to satirize contemporary media exposés on homosexuality), which depicted a cultural phenomenon similar to some aspects of the modern furry fandom (which did not become widespread until the 1980s, over a decade after the sketch was first aired).
The comedy film Americathon, released in 1979 and set in the United States of 1998, predicted a number of trends and events that would eventually unfold in the near future, including an American debt crisis, Chinese capitalism, the fall of the Soviet Union, a presidential sex scandal, and the popularity of reality shows.
In January 2001, a satirical news article in The Onion, entitled "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over"[167] had newly elected President George Bush vowing to "develop new and expensive weapons technologies" and to "engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years". Furthermore, he would "bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession". This prophesied the Iraq War, the Bush tax cuts, and the Great Recession.
In 1975, the first episode of Saturday Night Live included an ad for a triple blade razor called the Triple-Trac; in 2001, Gillette introduced the Mach3. In 2004, The Onion satirized Schick and Gillette's marketing of ever-increasingly multi-blade razors with a mock article proclaiming Gillette will now introduce a five-blade razor.[168] In 2006, Gillette released the Gillette Fusion, a five-blade razor.
After the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, The Onion ran an article with the headline "U.S. Soothes Upset Netanyahu With Shipment Of Ballistic Missiles". Sure enough, reports broke the next day of the Obama administration offering military upgrades to Israel in the wake of the deal.[169]
In July 2016, The Simpsons released the most recent in a string of satirical references to a potential Donald Trump presidency (although the first was made back in a 2000 episode). Other media sources, including the popular film Back to the Future Part II have also made similar satirical references.[170]
Infinite Jest, published in 1996, described an alternate America following the presidency of Johnny Gentle, a celebrity who had not held prior political office. Gentle's signature policy was the erection of a wall between the United States and Canada for use as a hazardous waste dump. The US territory behind the wall was "given" to Canada, and the Canadian government was forced to pay for the wall. This appeared to parody the signature campaign promise and background of Donald Trump.[171]
↑ The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the censors of the press, issued Orders to the Stationers' Company on June 1 and 4, 1599, prohibiting the further printing of satires—the so-called 'Bishop's Ban'.[88][pageneeded]
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↑ Ullman, BL (1913), "Satura and Satire", Classical Philology, 8 (2): 172–194, doi:10.1086/359771, JSTOR262450, S2CID161191881, The Renaissance confusion of the two origins encouraged a satire more aggressive than that of its Roman forebearers
↑ "Ig", Improbable, July 5, 2004, archived from the original on June 4, 2019, retrieved February 20, 2012
1 2 Rosenberg, Harold (1960), "Community, Values, Comedy", Commentary, 30, The American Jewish Committee: 155, the oldest form of social study is comedy... If the comedian, from Aristophanes to Joyce, does not solve sociology's problem of "the participant observer", he does demonstrate his objectivity by capturing behavior in its most intimate aspects yet in its widest typicality. Comic irony sets whole cultures side by side in a multiple exposure (e.g., Don Quixote, Ulysses), causing valuation to spring out of the recital of facts alone, in contrast to the hidden editorializing of tongue-in-cheek ideologists.
↑ Nash, Roderick Frazier (1970), "21. The New Humor", The Call of the Wild: 1900–1916, p.203, Humor is one of the best indicators of popular thought. To ask what strikes a period as funny is to probe its deepest values and tastes.
↑ Babcock, Barbara A. (1984), "Arrange Me Into Disorder: Fragments and Reflections on Ritual Clowning", in MacAloon (ed.), Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Also collected as Babcock, Barbara A Grimes (1996), Ronald, L (ed.), Readings in ritual studies, Prentice Hall, p.5, ISBN9780023472534, Harold Rosenberg has asserted that sociology needs to bring comedy into the foreground, including "an awareness of the comedy of sociology with its disguises", and, like Burke and Duncan, he has argued that comedy provides "the radical effect of self- knowledge which the anthropological bias excludes.
↑ Coppola, Jo (1958), "An Angry Young Magazine ...", The Realist (1), Good comedy is social criticism—although you might find that hard to believe if all you ever saw were some of the so-called clowns of videoland.... Comedy is dying today because criticism is on its deathbed... because telecasters, frightened by the threats and pressure of sponsors, blacklists and viewers, helped introduce conformity to this age... In such a climate, comedy cannot flourish. For comedy is, after all, a look at ourselves, not as we pretend to be when we look in the mirror of our imagination, but as we really are. Look at the comedy of any age and you will know volumes about that period and its people which neither historian nor anthropologist can tell you.
↑ Coppola, Jo (December 12, 1958). Comedy on Television. Commonweal. p.288.
1 2 3 4 Bevere, Antonio and Cerri, Augusto (2006) Il Diritto di informazione e i diritti della personapp.265–6Archived November 22, 2022, at the Wayback Machine quotation:
nella storia della nostra cultura, la satira ha realizzato il bisogno popolare di irridere e dissacrare il gotha politico ed economico, le cui reazioni punitive non sono certo state condizionate da critiche estetiche, ma dalla tolleranza o intolleranza caratterizzanti in quel momento storico la società e i suoi governanti. (...) la reale esistenza della satira in una società deriva, (...) dal margine di tolleranza espresso dai poteri punitivi dello Stato.
↑ Amy Wiese Forbes (2010) The Satiric Decade: Satire and the Rise of Republicanism in France, 1830–1840 p.xvArchived November 22, 2022, at the Wayback Machine , quotation:
a critical public discourse (...) Satire rose the daunting question of what role public opinion would play in government. (...) satirists criticized government activities, exposed ambiguities, and forced administrators to clarify or establish policies. Not surprisingly, heated public controversy surrounded satiric commentary, resulting in an outright ban on political satire in 1835 (...) Government officials cracked down on their humorous public criticism that challenged state authority through both its form and content. Satire had been a political resource in France for a long time, but the anxious political context of the July Monarchy had unlocked its political power. Satire also taught lessons in democracy. It fit into the July Monarchy's tense political context as a voice in favor of public political debate. Satiric expression took place in the public sphere and spoke from a position of public opinion-that is, from a position of the nation's expressing a political voice and making claims on its government representatives and leadership. Beyond mere entertainment, satire's humor appealed to and exercised public opinion, drawing audiences into new practices of representative government.
1 2 Knight, Charles A. (2004) Literature of Satirep.254
A surprising variety of societies have allowed certain persons the freedom to mock other individuals and social institutions in rituals. From the earliest times the same freedom has been claimed by and granted to social groups at certain times of the year, as can be seen in such festivals as the Saturnalia, the Feast of Fools, Carnival, and similar folk festivals in India, nineteenth-century Newfoundland, and the ancient Mediterranean world.
Ils constituent donc pour la tribu un moyen de donner une satisfaction symbolique aux tendances anti-sociales. Les Zunis, précisément parce qu'ils sont un peuple apollinien [où la règle prédomine], avaient besoin de cette soupape de sûreté. Les Koyemshis représentent ce que M. Caillois nomme le «Sacré de transgression».
Déjà Cazeneuve (2) [Les dieux dansent à Cibola] avait mis auparavant en relief, dans la Société «apollinienne» des Zuñi, l'institution et le symbolisme saturnal des clowns Koyemshis, véritable soupape de sûreté «dionysienne».
Nella storia del teatro si ritrova sempre questo conflitto in cui si scontrano impegno e disimpegno ... grottesco, satirico e lazzo con sfottò. E spesso vince lo sfotto. tanto amato dal potere. Quando si dice che il potere ama la satira
↑ Fo, Dario; Lorch, Jennifer (1997), Dario Fo, Manchester University Press, p.128, ISBN9780719038488, In other writings Fo makes an important distinction between sfottò and satire.
... Una caricatura che, è ovvio, risulta del tutto bonaria, del tutto epidermica, che indica, come dicevo prima, soltanto la parte più esteriore del loro carattere, i tic la cui messa in risalto non lede assolutamente l'operato, l'ideologia, la morale e la dimensione culturale di questi personaggi. ... ricordando che i politici provano un enorme piacere nel sentirsi presi in giro; è quasi un premio che si elargisce loro, nel momento stesso in cui li si sceglie per essere sottoposti alla caricatura, a quella caricatura. ... Di fatto questa è una forma di comicità che non si può chiamare satira, ma solo sfottò. ... Pensa quanti pretesti satirici si offrirebbero se solo quei comici del "Biberon" volessero prendere in esame il modo in cui questi personaggi gestiscono il potere e lo mantengono, o si decidessero a gettare l'occhio sulle vere magagne di questa gente, le loro violenze più o meno mascherate, le loro arroganze e soprattutto le loro ipocrisie. ...un teatro cabaret capostipite: il Bagaglino, un teatro romano che, già vent'anni fa, si metteva in una bella chiave politica dichiaratamente di estrema destra, destra spudoratamente reazionaria, scopertamente fascista. Nelle pieghe del gruppo del Bagaglino e del suo lavoro c'era sempre la caricatura feroce dell'operaio, del sindacalista, del comunista, dell'uomo di sinistra, e una caricatura bonacciona invece, e ammiccante, accattivante, degli uomini e della cultura al potere
L'ironia fatta sui tic, sulla caricatura dei connotati più o meno grotteschi dei politici presi di mira, dei loro eventuali difetti fisici, della loro particolare pronuncia, dei loro vezzi, del loro modo di vestire, del loro modo di camminare, delle frasi tipiche che vanno ripetendo. ...[lo sfottò è] una chiave buffonesca molto antica, che viene di lontano, quella di giocherellare con gli attributi esteriori e non toccare mai il problema di fondo di una critica seria che è l'analisi messa in grottesco del comportamento, la valutazione ironica della posizione, dell'ideologia del personaggio.
↑ Morson, Gary Saul (1988), Boundaries of Genre, Northwestern University Press, p.114, ISBN9780810108110, second, that parodies can be, as Bakhtin observes, "shallow" as well as "deep" (Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, 160), which is to say, directed at superficial as well as fundamental faults of the original. [...] the distinction between shallow and deep [...] [is] helpful in understanding the complex ways in which parodies are used. For instance, shallow parody is sometimes used to pay an author an indirect compliment. The opposite of damning with faint praise, this parody with faint criticism may be designed to show that no more fundamental criticism could be made.
↑ Luttazzi, Daniele (2005), Matrix, IT, archived from the original on December 25, 2005, Dario Fo disse a Satyricon: —La satira vera si vede dalla reazione che suscita.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Luttazzi, Daniele (October 2003), Fracassi, Federica; Guerriero, Jacopo (eds.), "State a casa a fare i compiti"(interview), Nazione Indiana (in Italian), Lo sfottò è reazionario. Non cambia le carte in tavola, anzi, rende simpatica la persona presa di mira. La Russa, oggi, è quel personaggio simpatico, con la voce cavernosa, il doppiatore dei Simpson di cui Fiorello fa l'imitazione. Nessuno ricorda più il La Russa picchiatore fascista. Nessuno ricorda gli atti fascisti e reazionari di questo governo in televisione.
...religion, politics, and sexuality are the primary stuff of literary satire. Among these sacret targets, matters costive and defecatory play an important part. ... from the earliest times, satirists have utilized scatological and bathroom humor. Aristophanes, always livid and nearly scandalous in his religious, political, and sexual references...
↑ Clark, John R; Motto, Anna Lydia (1980), "Menippeans & Their Satire: Concerning Monstrous Leamed Old Dogs and Hippocentaurs", Scholia Satyrica, 6 (3/4): 45, [Chapple's book Soviet satire of the twenties]... classifying the very topics his satirists satirized: housing, food, and fuel supplies, poverty, inflation, "hooliganism", public services, religion, stereotypes of nationals (the Englishman, German, &c), &c. Yet the truth of the matter is that no satirist worth his salt (Petronius, Chaucer, Rabelais, Swift, Leskov, Grass) ever avoids man's habits and living standards, or scants those delicate desiderata: religion, politics, and sex.
↑ Ferdie Addis (2012) Qual è il tuo "tallone da killer"?p.20
The most pressing of the problems that face us when we close the book or leave the theatre are ultimately political ones; and so politics is the pre-eminent topic of satire. ...to some degree public affairs vex every man, if he pays taxes, does military service or even objects to the way his neighbour is behaving. There is no escape from politics where more than a dozen people are living together. There is an essential connection between satire and politics in the widest sense: satire is not only the commonest form of political literature, but, insofar as it tries to influence public behaviours, it is the most political part of all literature.
1 2 Anspaugh, Kelly (1994) 'Bung Goes the Enemay': Wyndham Lewis and the Uses of Disgust. in Mattoid (ISSN 0314-5913) issue 48.3, pp.21–29. As quoted in Wilson (2002):
The turd is the ultimate dead object.
↑ Lise Andries Etat des recherche. Présentation in Dix-Huitième Siècle n.32, 2000, special on Rire p.10, as quoted in Jean-Michel Racault (2005) Voyages badins, burlesques et parodiques du XVIIIe siècle, p.7, quotation: "Le corps grotesque dans ses modalités clasiques – la scatologie notamment – ..."
↑ Duprat, Annie (1982) La dégradation de l'image royale dans la caricature révolutionnairep.178 quotation:
Le corps grotesque est una realite populaire detournee au profit d'une representation du corps a but politique, plaquege du corps scatologique sur le corps de ceux qu'il covient de denoncer. Denonciation scatologique projetee sur le corps aristocratique pour lui signifier sa degenerescence.
It is this fear of what the dead in their uncontrollable power might cause which has brought forth apotropaic rites, protective rites against the dead. (...) One of these popular rites was the funeral rite of sin-eating, performed by a sin-eater, a man or woman. Through accepting the food and drink provided, he took upon himself the sins of the departed.
↑ Vuong, Quan-Hoang (2022). The Kingfisher Story Collection. AISDL. ISBN979-8353946595.
↑ Lichtheim, M (1973), Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol.I, pp.184–93
↑ Helck, W (1970), Die Lehre des DwA-xtjj, Wiesbaden
↑ Gardiner, Alan H (1911), Egyptian Hieratic Texts, I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom, vol.I, Leipzig{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
1 2 Sutton, DF (1993), Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations, New York, p.56{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ André De Vries, Flanders: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007, p.100-101.
↑ Hall 1969: 'Hall's Virgidemiae was a new departure in that the true Juvenalian mode of satire was being attempted for the first time, and successfully, in English.'
↑ Shankarji (February 24, 2019). "The Modi song". Rough cut productions. Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
↑ David King & Cathy Porter 'Blood & Laughter: Caricatures from the 1905 Revolution' Jonathan Cape 1983 p.31
↑ Chaplin (1964) My Autobiography, p.392, quotation:
Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator, I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.
↑ Freudenburg, Kirk (2001). Satires of Rome: Threatening Poses from Lucilius to Juvenal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 299. ISBN0-521-00621-X.
↑ Van Norris (2014). British Television Animation 1997–2010: Drawing Comic Tradition". p. 153. Palgrave Macmillan,
↑ Embrick DG, Talmadge J. Wright TJ, Lukacs A (2012). Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play: New Research in Digital Media and Technology, Lexington Books, p. 19, ISBN9780739138625. Quote: "In-game television programs and advertisements, radio stations, and billboards provide a running satirical commentary on the state of civilization in general, and on the roles of males in particular."
↑ Canavan G, Robinson KS (2014). Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, p. 278, ISBN9780819574282.
1 2 Byron G, Townshend D (2013). The Gothic World. Routledge. p. 456. ISBN9781135053062. Quote: "[P]resent themselves as deliberately controversial, incorporating hyper-violent gameplay, dark social satire and conspicuous political incorrectness[.]"
↑ Lavender III, Isiah (2017). Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction. Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 208, ISBN9781496811554.
↑ Lund, Arwid (2020). Wikipedia, Work, and Capitalism. Springer: Dynamics of Virtual Work. ISBN9783319506890., p. 48.
↑ Kaye, Sharon M. (2010). The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News Story True, Alleges Indignant Area Professor. Open Court Publishing. p. 243. ISBN9780812696875. Quote: "People might be justified in concluding that the Onion is a legitimate small-town paper when they see headlines like "Local Woman Devotes Life To Doing God's Busy Work" (10/4/08), "God Help Him, Area Man Loves That Crazy Bitch" (11/22/08), or "Area Woman Wouldn't Mind Feeding Your Cats" (12/6/08). Even if they read the full story, they may never figure out it is a satire. Maybe if they scroll to the bottom of the webpage and notice the disclaimer, 'The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age' they would realize that this is not your average news source. Maybe not—especially if they think that there might be such a thing as "adult news.""
↑ Lewellen, Chelesea; Bohonos, Jeremy W. (January 2021). "Excuse me, sir?: A critical race theory (hair) chronicle". Gender, Work & Organization. 28 (S1): 1–5. doi:10.1111/gwao.12522. ISSN0968-6673. S2CID225368135.
↑ Griffin, Dustin H. (1994) Satire: A Critical Reintroductionp.136
↑ Geisler, Michael E. (2005) National Symbols, Fractured Identities: Contesting the National Narrativep.73
1 2 3 4 Pezzella, Vincenzo (2009) La diffamazione: responsabilità penale e civilepp.566–7 quotation:
Il diritto di satira trova il suo fondamento negli artt. 21 e 33 della Costituzione che tutelano, rispettivamente, la libertà di manifestazione del pensiero e quella di elaborazione artistica e scientifica. (...) la satira, in quanto operante nell'ambito di ciò che è arte, non è strettamente correlata ad esigenze informative, dal che deriva che i suoi limiti di liveità siano ben più ammpi di quelli propri del diritto di cronaca
↑ Apte, Mahadev L (1985), "Introduction", Humor and laughter: an anthropological approach, Cornell University Press, p.23, ISBN9780801493072, The general neglect of humor as a topic of anthropological research is reflected in teaching practice. Most introductory textbooks do not even list humor as a significant characteristic of cultural systems together with kinship, social roles, behavioral patterns, religion, language, economic transactions, political institutions, values, and material culture.
↑ Arber, Edward, ed. (1875–94), A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640, vol.III, London, p.677{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Franklin, Benjamin (April 26, 1784). "Aux auteurs du Journal". Journal de Paris (in French) (117). Wrote anonymously. Its first publication was in the journal's "Économie" section. An Economical Project (revised English versioned.), retrieved May 26, 2007 has a title that is not Franklin's; see Aldridge, A. O. (1956). "Franklin's essay on daylight saving". American Literature. 28 (1): 23–29. doi:10.2307/2922719. JSTOR2922719.
Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1976), The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature, Brill Publishers, ISBN90-04-04392-6 .
Massimo Colella, Seicento satirico: Il Viaggio di Antonio Abati (con edizione critica in appendice), in «La parola del testo», XXVI, 1-2, 2022, pp.77–100.
Further reading
Bloom, Edward A (1972), "Sacramentum Militiae: The Dynamics of Religious Satire", Studies in the Literary Imagination, 5: 119–42.
Bronowski, Jacob; Mazlish, Bruce (1993) [1960], The Western Intellectual Tradition From Leonardo to Hegel, Barnes & Noble, p.252.
Connery, Brian A, Theorizing Satire: A Bibliography, Oakland University.
Lee, Jae Num (1971), Scatology in Continental Satirical Writings from Aristophanes to Rabelais and English Scatological Writings from Skelton to Pope, 1,2,3 maldita madre. Swift and Scatological Satire, Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, pp.7–22, 23–53.
Theories/critical approaches to satire as a genre
Connery, Brian; Combe, Kirk, eds. (1995). Theorizing Satire: Essays in Literary Criticism. New York: St. Martin's Press. p.212. ISBN0-312-12302-7.
Draitser, Emil (1994), Techniques of Satire: The Case of Saltykov-Shchedrin, Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN3-11-012624-9 .
Hammer, Stephanie, Satirizing the Satirist.
Highet, Gilbert, Satire.
Kernan, Alvin, The Cankered Muse.
Kindermann, Udo (1978), Satyra. Die Theorie der Satire im Mittellateinischen, Vorstudie zu einer Gattungsgeschichte (in German), Nürnberg.
Κωστίου, Αικατερίνη (2005), Εισαγωγή στην Ποιητική της Ανατροπής: σάτιρα, ειρωνεία, παρωδία, χιούμορ (in Greek), Αθήνα: Νεφέλη
The plot of satire
Seidel, Michael, Satiric Inheritance.
Zdero, Rad (2008), Entopia: Revolution of the Ants.
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