What are the
main techniques of satire?
1)
Exaggeration:
¡ To enlarge, increase, or represent something
beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.
(e.g. Political cartoons)
2)
Incongruity:
¡ To present things that are out of place or
are absurd in relation to their surroundings. (e.g. The royal family speaking
in slang)
3) Reversal:
¡ To present the opposite of the normal order;
Reversal is where the normal order of something is altered to become the
opposite of what would be expected (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical
order changes such that the youngest rule the oldest).
4) Parody:
¡ To imitate the techniques and/or style of
some person, place, or thing.
¡ A work that imitates another work in order to
ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work
itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody,
or another subject.
¡ Takes the form of a contemptuous imitation of
an existing artistic production — usually a serious work for satirical or
humorous purposes.
Further
Techniques of Satire
Caricature -
Gross exaggeration or distortion of , usually physical, characteristics.
Horatian
Satire - meant to "delight and instruct" this style of satire uses
laughter and ridicule to highlight human foibles in a fairly gentle,
non-accusatory manner.
Invective -
Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or vituperates against. It can be
directed against a person, cause, idea, or system. It employs a heavy use of
negative emotive language. Example:
I cannot but conclude the bulk of
your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature
ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth. --Swift
Irony - If
you've ever said to someone, "I love what you're wearing" when you
actually think it looks awful, there are three possibilities:
1.
You want that person to believe you, in which case you're lying, but
probably out of a kindly impulse.
2.
You don't want to be believed: you want to upset the person. In this
case you're being sarcastic.
3.
You don't want to be believed: you want the other person to share a
feeling of amusement. In this case you're being ironic.
Irony is a
mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (irony of
situation), conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to
appearance or expectation. A writer may say the opposite of what he means,
create a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment, or give the audience
knowledge that a character lacks, making the character's words have meaning to
the audience not perceived by the character. Irony is the most common and most
efficient technique of the satirist, because it is an instrument of truth,
provides wit and humor, and is usually at least obliquely critical, in that it
deflates, scorns, or attacks.
The ability
to detect irony is sometimes heralded as a test of intelligence and
sophistication. When a text intended to be ironic is not seen as such, the
effect can be disastrous. Some students have taken Swift's "Modest
Proposal" literally. And Defoe's contemporaries took his " Shortest
Way with the Dissenters" literally and jailed him for it. To be an
effective piece of sustained irony, there must be some sort of audience
tip-off, through style, tone, use of clear exaggeration, or other device.
Verbal irony
- Sometimes known as linguistic irony,
verbal irony carries two meanings: the explicit or apparent meaning and a
second, often mocking, meaning running counter to the first. Jane Austen’s
novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) opens with the words, “It is a truth
universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must
be in want of a wife”. Here, the explicit meaning is undermined by the
suggestion that single women want a rich husband. In verbal irony, the writer's meaning or even
his attitude may be different from what he says: "Why, no one would dare
argue that there could be anything more important in choosing a college than
its proximity to the beach
Structural
irony - Structural irony is built into
texts in such a way that both the surface meaning and deeper implications are
present more or less throughout. One of the most common ways of achieving
structural irony is through the use of a naïve hero or naïve narrator, whose
simple and straightforward comments are at variance with the reader’s
interpretation. This depends for its success on the reader understanding the
author’s intention (if one may dismiss intentionality in such a cavalier way!)
and perceiving an authorial presence behind the naïve persona.The humorist
P.G.Woodhouse created the naïve narrator Bertie Wooster (1917 onwards), who
reports the deflating comments of Jeeves, his butler, with no indication that
he perceives any irony. Swift’s satire Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is narrated by
the gullible Gulliver, who finishes up trying to behave like a horse because
he’s been convinced horses are superior to men.
Dramatic irony - Dramatic irony derives, again, from classical
Greek literature, and this time again from the theatre. It refers to a
situation in which the audience has knowledge denied to one or more of the
characters on stage. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1599-1600), for example,
Malvolio’s hopes of a splendid future derive from a letter which the audience
knows to be faked. An example of dramatic
irony (where the audience has knowledge that gives additional meaning to a
character's words) would be when King Oedipus, who has unknowingly killed his
father, says that he will banish his father's killer when he finds him.
Cosmic or Situational irony - This
refers to writing in which life, or God, or fate, or some other powerful force
seems to be manipulating events in a way that mocks all the efforts of the
protagonist. A famous example is Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbevilles (1891)
in which the eponymous heroine, largely through innocence in a world which is
hostile to her, loses her virginity, her happiness and ultimately her life.
Hardy’s final comment on his heroine is that “The President of the
Immortals…had ended his sport with Tess.”
An example of situational irony would occur if a professional pickpocket
had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone else's
pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition by the audience of a
reality in contrast with expectation or appearance, while another audience,
victim, or character puts confidence in the appearance as reality (in this
case, the pickpocket doesn't expect his own pocket to be picked). The surprise
recognition by the audience often produces a comic effect, making irony often
funny.
Juvenalian Satire. - Harsher, more pointed,
perhaps intolerant satire typified by the writings of Juvenal. Juvenalian
satire often attacks particular people, sometimes thinly disguised as fictional
characters. While laughter and ridicule are still weapons as with Horatian
satire, the Juvenalian satirist also uses withering invective and a slashing
attack. Swift is a Juvenalian satirist.
Juxtaposition – side by side placement of
opposites, usually, to highlight some characteristic
.i.e. Mutt
and Jeff
Lampoon - A
crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing the personal appearance or
character of a person.
Persona - The person created by the author to
tell a story. Whether the story is told by an omniscient narrator or by a
character in it, the actual author of the work often distances himself from
what is said or told by adopting a persona--a personality different from his
real one. Thus, the attitudes, beliefs, and degree of understanding expressed
by the narrator may not be the same as those of the actual author. Some
authors, for example, use narrators who are not very bright in order to create
irony.
Sarcasm - A form of verbal irony, expressing
sneering, personal disapproval in the guise of praise. (Oddly enough, sarcastic
remarks are often used between friends, perhaps as a somewhat perverse
demonstration of the strength of the bond--only a good friend could say this
without hurting the other's feelings, or at least without excessively damaging
the relationship, since feelings are often hurt in spite of a close
relationship. If you drop your lunch tray and a stranger says, "Well, that
was really intelligent," that's sarcasm. If your girlfriend or boyfriend
says it, that's love--I think.)
Understatement - Expressing an idea with less
emphasis or in a lesser degree than is the actual case. The opposite of
hyperbole. Understatement is employed for ironic emphasis. Example:
"Last week I saw a woman
flay'd, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the
worse." –Swift
Examples:
