Satire in Writing Calls for Great Wit and a Delicate Touch

Satire

Satire: making fun of or ridiculing something using humor; satire often employs the following figures of speech: irony, exaggeration, understatement, or euphemism; verb form: to satirize  Usually the thing criticized is an aspect of society or a social institution (e.g. marriage, war, religion, government, etc.), human nature, or even a person  Satire in writing calls for great wit and a delicate touch  The word satire originally comes from the Latin word satura meaning “a dish filled with mixed fruits”

TWO TYPES OF SATIRE: 1. Horatian satire: (follows the example of the Roman poet Horace) is gentle, urbane, light-hearted, and good-natured. It aims to correct and point out human weakness in smiling sympathetic laughter.  Often gently attacks the folly of human nature  Mark Twain is an example of a writer who uses Horatian satire  In Red China Blues, Jan Wong uses Horatian satire to lightly poke fun at herself (“I was really a Montreal Maoist” p. 15) as well as China and Chinese people during and after the Cultural Revolution. 2. Juvenalian satire (the satire of Juvenal) is biting, bitter, and angry (or for those of you with broad vocabularies: vituperative, derisive, and full of invective )  It attacks with contempt and moral indignation the crimes and corruption of human nature and human institutions.  Jonathon Swift is an example of a writer who uses juvenalian satire in his “A Modest Proposal” pamphlet, where he argued that poor and hungry Irish people should kill and eat their children for food.

OTHER GREAT SATIRISTS:  Miguel de Cervantes in his book Don Quixote  Alexander Pope in his mock epic poem The Rape of the Locke  Voltaire in Candide  Lord Byron in his mock epic poem Don Juan

Satire is employed by writers using the following literary devices:

1. irony: saying one thing and meaning the opposite (see the handout on irony)  seemingly praises a person or action but implies blame  In Red China Blues, Jan Wong remarks that “as the person who paid the salary, I had the least say in Housekeeper Ma’s schedule” (situational irony; p. 344)  In Red China Blues, Jan Wong uses verbal irony when she talks about why she kept Cook Mu on even though he was inflating his receipts: “Besides, I appreciated his comments on my acne.” (p.343)

2. exaggeration (known as hyperbole): the writer grossly exaggerates something to show how ridiculous it is; writers often use caricature to exaggerate people and their looks  In Red China Blues, Jan talks of using some strong pesticide and watching a mosquito die in mid-flight (p. 127)  In Voltaire’s Candide, the old woman’s horrible misfortune in life is exaggerated to show how absurd the concept of “philosophical optimism” is  In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare uses satire to make fun of sonnets full of exaggerated comparisons

3. understatement: purposely understates something in order to be funny (especially litotes1)  In Red China Blues, Jan “tried not to think what it [pesticide] was doing to my descendants.” (p. 127)  A person with a “dry sense of humor” employs understatement (e.g. a person who doesn’t recognize Stephen King asks him “Do you write very often?” and Stephen King responds “I write occasionally.”)  Voltaire’s description of the Lady Baroness in Candide uses both exaggeration and understatement: “My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, consequently was a person of no small consideration” 1 litotes: a type of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite (e.g. “Michael Jordon was not a bad basketball player in his prime”) 4. euphemism: when an indirect statement is substituted for a direct one. Euphemistic terms are used by many writers to avoid bluntness or offense  e.g. Instead of saying “He is fat” you can say “He is on the large side.”  Voltaire uses euphemism when he describes “Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother's chambermaid,” which is a euphemism for having sex

Webster DCS