background a modest proposal by jonathan swift. historical note end of 1600s abrupt change in...
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HISTORICAL NOTE
End of 1600s abrupt change in literary style
1660 date of Restoration & end of Oliver
Cromwell’s reign
Restoration Charles II (monarchy) – new court
French influence
Religion: Catholic Church in decline
No agreement on word of God or accepted moral
authority
Social/political basis needed to avert religious
strife
NEW RATIONALISM
Limit emotional excess
Attention to forms of language
Purification of language to clear, simple style
LANGUAGE REFORM
Great age of dictionaries
Purge language of complex metaphors, especially
religious
Style move from passionate lyric to more public,
restrained, polite forms
RISING MIDDLE CLASS
Literate with considerable spending power and
leisure
Rising concern with public manners + how people
should spend leisure time
Development of magazines and journals
Importance of literature shaping public taste
Conservative, Anglican
traditionalists
Defended state religion
+ existing institutions
Liberal, committed to
rational reform +
dismissing the irrational
from religion as much as
possible
Improve trade, society,
make political system
more inclusive
TWO POLITICAL GROUPS
Tories Whigs
Not visibly powerful
politically
Radical Protestants,
Baptists, Methodists,
Quakers, etc.
Growing appeal with
working class
DISSENTERS
RISE OF SATIRE
Form of literature directly concerned with
addressing public issues w/strong didactic intent
Use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc., in speech or
writing to expose + discourage vice or folly
Particular use of humor for overtly moral purposes
WAYS TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR
Force (threats of
punishment)
Deliver moral lectures
Engage in conversation
to discover roots of
beliefs
Encourage everyone to
see target as ridiculous +
object of scorn
BASIS OF SATIRE
Sense of moral outrage must exist in audience as well
Most successful satires focus on lasting characteristics of
human experience
Challenge for writer is to be subtle + varied enough keep
reader interested in wit while making clear satiric intent
Insensitivity to levels of irony in language causes
difficulty in following satire
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Invective: abusive, non-
lyrical language aimed at
particular target
Curses, name-calling
Least inventive
Diatribe = lengthy
invective
Limited and can be boring
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Caricature:
exaggerating one feature
of target achieve
ridiculous effect
In writing reader
amused by distorted
detail in constantly witty
ways
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Burlesque: ridiculous exaggeration in language – makes
discrepancy b/w words + situation or character silly
Example: have a king speak like idiot or workman speak like
king
Serious situation have characters speak in in appropriate ways
Creates large gap b/w situation/character and style in which
they speak or act
Developed into risque performance genre
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Mock heroic: form of burlesque – sets up
deliberately disproportionate + witty distance b/w
elevated language (to describe action) and
foolishness of action
Urges reader see ridiculousness of heroic
pretentions of really trivial people
mocks classical stereotypes of heroes: Don
Quixote, by Cervantes
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Irony: real meaning different from literal meaning
- tends to be ambiguous
- becomes satiric when real meaning appears
to contradict surface meaning
- “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Lampoon: harsh personal attack on recognizable
target, focusing on target’s character or appearance
Example: "Nightlight" takes on the "Twilight"
series with the story of Belle Goose, a young girl who
travels to Switchblade, Oregon, only to meet Edwart
Mullen, a vampire computer nerd who isn't into
girls.
KEY SATIRIC TERMS
Parody: ridicule of a style
Less talented version = silly version of original
More skillful = imitates original well + goes farther to
make more ridiculous
Depends on reader knowledge of original
Example: Christmas Afternoon, by Robert Benchley
(Done in the Manner, If Not the Spirit, of Dickens)
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