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Satire

This document provides an introduction to satire, including definitions and techniques. It defines satire as a genre of writing that uses humor, exaggeration, and criticism to expose and critique social issues and human foolishness. Some key points made: - Satire mixes a critical attitude with wit and humor to try and improve mankind and institutions. - It uses techniques like exaggeration, reversal, incongruity, and parody to comment on or criticize its subject. - Effective satire contains elements of humor, criticism of humanity/society, and a moral perspective. - Common satire techniques include exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody.

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Ian Stanton
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446 views

Satire

This document provides an introduction to satire, including definitions and techniques. It defines satire as a genre of writing that uses humor, exaggeration, and criticism to expose and critique social issues and human foolishness. Some key points made: - Satire mixes a critical attitude with wit and humor to try and improve mankind and institutions. - It uses techniques like exaggeration, reversal, incongruity, and parody to comment on or criticize its subject. - Effective satire contains elements of humor, criticism of humanity/society, and a moral perspective. - Common satire techniques include exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody.

Uploaded by

Ian Stanton
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

An Introduction

to Satire
Another way to persuade

Using humor to persuade


Beyond

arguing, there are other


ways to write persuasively. For
example

Satire:

a manner of writing that


mixes a critical attitude with wit
and humor in an effort to improve
mankind and human institutions.

What is a satire?
A literary

work that ridicules


its subject through the use
of techniques such as
exaggeration, reversal,
incongruity, and/or parody in
order to make a comment
or criticism about it.

The necessary ingredients


HumorSatire

is funny!

Criticism,

either general criticism of


humanity or human nature or
specific criticism of an individual or
group.

Some

kind of moral voice: simply


mocking or criticism is not satire.

Examples of Satire in Pop Culture

What is the subject of


each piece of satire?
What comment is being
made?

Examples of Satire in Pop Culture

Satire Vocabulary
An exaggerated portrayal
of the weaknesses, frailties, or
humorous aspects of an individual or
group.

Caricature:

Caricatures of
the presidential
candidates by
Saturday Night
Live cast members
in 03 year actually
changed the way
that the
candidates
performed in
public.

Satire Vocabulary
Overstatement:

exaggeration: making
to seem more important than it really is.
Understatement: opposite of
exaggeration; a statement that
expresses a fact too weakly or less
emphatically than it should

** Zoolander and the fashion world


** Weird Als Amish Paradise

Satire Vocabulary
Verbal

Irony: a writer says one thing


and means another

Dramatic

Irony: When the reader or


audience knows something the
character does not.

Four Techniques of Satire

Exaggeration/
Hyperbole
To enlarge,

increase, or
represent something beyond
normal bounds so that it
becomes ridiculous and its
faults can be seen.

Four Techniques of Satire

Incongruity
To present things that
are out of place or are
absurd in relation to its
surroundings.

Four Techniques of Satire

Reversal
To present the
opposite of the normal
order (e.g., the order of
events, hierarchical
order).

Four Techniques of Satire

Parody

To imitate the
techniques and/or style of
some person, place, or
thing.

Example of Satire: A Modest Proposal


Written in 1729 by Jonathan Swift.
He believed England was exploiting
Ireland.
Many Irishmen worked farms owned by
Englishmen who charged high rentsso
high that the Irish were frequently
unable to pay them.
Consequently, many Irish farming
families lived on the edge of
starvation.

A Modest Proposal
In

A Modest Proposal, Swift


satirizes the English landlords with
outrageous humor, proposing that
Irish infants be sold as food at age
one, when they are plump and
healthy, to give the Irish a new
source of income and the English a
new food product to bolster their
economy and eliminate a social
problem.

A Modest Proposal excerpts


I

have been told by a


knowledgeable American that a
year-old-infant is a most
delicious nourishing and
wholesome food, whether stewed,
roasted, baked, or boiled. . . .
Therefore, I suggest that of the
120,000 new infants of poor
parents, 20,000 be reserved for
breeding and the rest be sold to
people of quality.

Think about this


Why

is A Modest Proposal an
effective satire?

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