SATIRE

•Satire is both a genre and a literary device that

holds human nature up to criticism and scorn. It
is often political in focus but does not have to
be. In literature, writers use irony, humor,
exaggeration, sarcasm and allegory to create
successful satire.
Satire in literature is a type of social
commentary. Writers use exaggeration, irony,
and other devices to poke fun of a particular
leader, a social custom or tradition, or any
other prevalent social figure or practice that
they want to comment on and call into
question.
 TYPES OF SATIRE

•Horatian
•Juvenalian
•Menippean
Horatian Horatian satire is comic and offers light social
commentary. It is meant to poke fun at a person or
situation in an entertaining way.
• Gulliver’s Travels, written in the eighteenth century by
Jonathan Swift, is an example of Horatian satire in
literature. The work is a spoof of the kind of travelogues
that were common at that time. Through his invented
narrator, Gulliver, Swift takes aim at travel writers, the
English government, and human nature itself.
Juvenalian Juvenalian satire is dark, rather than
comedic. It is meant to speak truth to power.
• George Orwell’s famous 1945 novel Animal
Farm is a good example of Juvenalian satire. The
novel’s intended target is communism and Stalin-
era Soviet Union. Animal Farm is also an
allegorical satire: it can be read as a simple tale of
farm animals, but it has a deeper political meaning.
Menippean Menippean satire casts moral judgment on a
particular belief, such as homophobia or racism. It can be
comic and light, much like Horatian satire—although it
can also be as stinging as Juvenalian satire.
• Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one
of the best examples of Menippean satire in literature is.
The novel pokes fun at upper-class intellectualism but
does it with a distinct sense of humor. The ridicule is
there, but it is good-natured in spirit.
 SATIRICAL DEVICES
• Humor Humor is a literary tool that makes
audiences laugh, or that intends to induce
amusement or laughter. Its purpose is to break the
monotony, boredom, and tedium, and make
the audience’s nerves relax. Humor is, in fact, the
end product and not the device itself.
• These devices are:
• Irony Irony is a critical tool in satire because it
highlights the distance between the way people talk
about a situation and the reality of the situation. For
example, use words that say the opposite of what you
mean.
• Hyperbole / Exaggeration Similarly, over-
exaggerating one feature or characteristic of your
satirical target can draw readers’ attention to what you
want to convey.
• Sarcasm Sarcasm is recognized as the use of irony to mock
or convey contempt. It is often used for comedic purposes,
although it often carries a negative tone, which can upset
those on the other end of the sarcasm. Typically, people use
it to convey the opposite of what is true to make the subject
of the sarcasm look or feel foolish.
• Allegory An allegory is a story that can be read in two
ways: with a literal meaning on the surface, and a hidden
meaning underneath that comments on a political or social
situation.