Types of Satire & Satiric Devices
Types of Satire & Satiric Devices
http://www.leisd.net/LHS/Class/63-Deidra-Combs/Assignments/2950-Writing-with-Satire.html
There are two types of satire: Horatian and Juvenalian
Horatian satire is: tolerant, witty, wise and self-effacing
Juvenalian satire is: angry, caustic, resentful, personal
Satiric Devices
1. Humor
A. exaggeration: the formalized walk of Charlie Chaplin, the facial and body contortions of Jim Carrey
B. understatement: Fielding’s description of a grossly fat and repulsively ugly Mrs. Slipslop: “She was not remarkably handsome.”
C. incongruity
D. deflation: the English professor mispronounces a word, the President slips and bangs his head leaving the helicopter, etc.
E. linguistic games: malapropisms, weird rhymes, etc.
F. surprise: twist endings, unexpected events
2. Irony: Literary device in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does, and what one means or what is generally understood.
3. Invective: name calling, personal abuse, etc.
4. Mock Encomium: praise which is only apparent and which suggests blame instead
5. Grotesque: creating a tension between laughter and horror or revulsion; the essence of all “sick humor: or “black humor”
6. Comic Juxtaposition: linking together with no commentary items which normally do not go together; Pope’s line in Rape of the Lock: “Puffs, patches, bibles, and billet-doux”
7. Mock Epic/Mock Heroic: using elevated diction and devices from the epic or the heroic to deal with low or trivial subjects
8. Parody: mimicking the style and/or techniques of something or someone else
9. Inflation: taking a real-life situation and blowing it out of proportion to make it ridiculous and showcase its faults
10. Diminution: taking a real-life situation and reducing it to make it ridiculous and showcase its faults
Types of Irony
Irony is a literary and rhetorical device that is typically used to impregnate words or actions with a meaning beyond the most literal interpretation. There are three common manifestations of irony: verbal, dramatic and situational.
1. Dramatic Irony- the contrast between what a character knows and what his audience knows.
2. Situational Irony- the contrast between what was expected to happen and what actually ended up happening.
3. Verbal Irony- the contrast between what is said and what is meant.
Satire Essay Assignment
Satire is often a careful blend of humor, irony, sarcasm, and various rhetorical and literary devises. The purpose of satire is to expose the folly of some aspect of human life or society, perhaps with the aim of bringing about some reform or improvement.
You have two options for this essay.
1. Choose some aspect of life, for example, a policy, a tradition, or an institution, which you believe to be foolish in some way and in need of correction or reform. In a well-organized essay (minimum three paragraphs), write about this subject.
a. Identify the subject (intro)
b. Explain what the folly/problems are (body)
c. Provide possible changes/solutions (conclusion)
2. Choose some aspect of life, for example, a policy, a tradition, or an institution, which you believe to be foolish in some way and in need of correction or reform. In a well-organized essay (minimum three paragraphs), write a satire in which you expose its folly.