Week 5.4

1. Week 5.4

2. Fiction Book Clubs • Decide on books today • First book club meeting 1st week of 6th six weeks • 4 weeks to buy book and start reading

12. Intro to Satire • Satire - the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation. • A work of satire is a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule

13. An important distinction • Satire differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter as an end in itself, while satire derides; • i.e. it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt – an object- that exists outside the work itself • Objects: the butt, or object, of satire may be an individual, or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even the entire human race

14. Purpose • Satire has usually been justified by those who practice it as a corrective of human vice and folly. • The aim of satire is to ridicule the fault or failing of the individual – rather than the individual person – and only to target those faults that are correctable, not those for which the individual is not responsible

15. The typical satirist • is a blend of idealist and realist. • He is an idealist in that he wants to improve the world and is keenly aware of the great discrepancy between what the world could be and what it is. • He is a realist in that he recognizes that he must go beyond the customary avenues of appeal in order to influence.

16. Satire vs. works containing satire: • Satire occurs as an incidental, or side, element within many works whose overall mode is not satiric – in a certain character or situation, or in an interpolated passage or an ironic commentary on some aspect of the human condition or of contemporary society. • However, literary writings in which ridicule is the primary organizing principle constitute a distinct literary genre termed “satire.” Examples include Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Shamela, Nightlight: A Parody

17. Persona • Satirists often make use of a special kind of narrator, called a mask or persona, which should not be confused with the author’s own voice. • Ex: Mark Twain’s Huck Finn, in which Twain is not personally advocating the naïve and innocent but nonetheless racists mindset of the work’s persona, Huck Finn.

18. Types of Satire • Satire is divided into two types based on the tone of the writing: • Horatian Satire • Juvenalian Satire

19. Horatian satire • tends to be lighter, gentler, less serious in tone. • The speaker manifests the character of an urbane, witty, and tolerant man of the world, who is moved more often to wry amusement than indignation at the spectacle of human folly, pretentiousness, or hypocrisy.

20. Juvenaliansatire • tends to be more serious, even harsh and bitter in tone. • The character of the speaker is that of a serious moralist who uses a dignified and public style to decry kinds of vice and error that, while ridiculous, are usually more serious or dangerous. Instead of amusement, in this type of satire the speaker attempts to evoke from readers contempt, moral indignation, or unillusioned sadness at the aberrations of humanity. • Ex: “A Modest Proposal”

21. Satirical Devices and Modes • Euphemisms • Hyperbole • Irony • Verbal • Situational • Dramatic • Point of View • Selection of detail

22. Satirical Devices and Modes • Litotes- a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form (ex: running a marathon is no small feat) • Juxtaposition - normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. • Sarcasm - a sneering or cutting remark; praise which is really an insult

23. Burlesque • imitation of the manner (form or style) of the subject matter of a serious literary work or genre, which makes the imitation amusing by creating a ridiculous disparity between the matter and the manner, most often either by treating a trivial or ridiculous subject (the matter) in a serious or high-toned way (or manner), or by doing the opposite, treating a serious subject in a light or derogatory way. Ex: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

24. Caricature: a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others. • Lampoon: a crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing the personal appearance or character of a person.

25. Parody: a satiric imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of ridiculing the author, his ideas, or work, and may be focused on exploiting the peculiarities of the author’s expression (favorite words, plot devices, etc). Ex: Scary Movie, Meet the Spartans, etc • Travesty: a works that treats a serious subject frivolously – ridiculing the dignified. A travesty is identical to a parody with this difference: travesty is a parody that has been taken a step further. A parody tends to be Horation in tone whereas a travesty tends to be Juvenalian.

26. Wit: a verbal expression which is brief, deft, and intentionally contrived to produce a shock of comic surprise • Humor: pertaining to comic modes of appearance or behavior as well as comic utterances. Whereas wit is always intended by the speaker to be comic, humor is often found in speeches the speaker intends to be serious.

27. Panera Bread Article • What persona is being used? • What is the object of the satire? • What criticism is the article making? • Horatian or Juvenalian?