Satire - Literary Terms
Satire - Literary Terms
Dr. Johnson defines satire as a poem “in which wickedness or folly is censured.” However, Swift's definition of satire is one of the most famous. He said, “Satire is a sort of glass where in beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.” Abrams defines satire in the following terms: “Satire is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards it attitudes to amusement, contempt, indignation or scorn”. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter as an end in itself, while satire derides. It also differs from invective which is direct denunciation and namecalling, and mere insult in the sharp wit of its presentation.
Irony is the chief device of satire. In the mock heroic, which is a form of satire, trivial situations and characters are satirized by being treated in a lofty or heroic manner. Other satiric devices are sarcasm, innuendo, burlesque, parody and caricature
Satire can be formal or indirect. In formal satire, the author or the persona, speaks in the first person directly to the reader, or sometimes to a character who responds. In indirect satire the satirist creates a story or play peopled with characters who appear to be the targets of satire. One form of indirect satire is Menippean satire which deals with mental attitudes rather than people.
Satire may also be classified as Horatian or Juvenalian satire Horatian satire is gentle, amused, mild and corrective. Juvenalian satire is harsh, bitter, biting, and full of moral indignation and contempt.
The purpose of satire is to ridicule frailties in human customs and institutions, and by causing laughter, to inspire their reform.
Satire existed in the early classical literature of Greece and Rome. Gulliver's Travels of Swift, and Absalom and Achitophel of Dryden are famous satires.
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