BACKGROUND

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

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)

KEY SATIRIC TERMS

Reductio ad absurdum: author agrees

enthusiastically w/basic attitudes or assumptions he

satirizes + by pushing to logically ridiculous

extreme, exposes foolishness of original attitudes

can be dangerous when reader fails to recognize

satire or target

Example: A Modest Proposal