1. Satire: A Study of Human Behavior

2. Purposes and Audiences
Satire is a form of literature that has several purposes:
To punish mankind for its transgressions
To break down mankind’s attitudes which hinder reform
To correct mankind’s weaknesses
And audiences:
People who agree with the satirist
People who the satirist is ridiculing
People who might be persuaded to act

3. The satirist tries to make the reader uncomfortable, to
shake him out of
his complacency,
and to make him an
ally in the battle
against the
world’s stupidity.

4. In short…
Satire is a form of social commentary: it uses the world around us to make us see the “correct” or better way to live.
Satire often includes:
a detailed description of the setting;
blunt, crude or obscene language;
and abstraction or fantasy to create a travesty of the real world.

5. Satire & Tone
Tone: the author’s attitude toward his subject or audience. In satire, analyzing the author’s tone can often help us better understand his criticism of people and/or situations. How does an author achieve and convey tone? Through: Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, and Sentence Structure

6. Elements of Tone In satire, the author’s tone is often:
Scornful amusement
Contempt
Hopeful
Hateful
Humorous
Sense of superiority
These are all feelings. Avoid characterizing tone in terms of colors and shades (dark, light, etc.)

7. Tools of the Satirist: Reduction Mimicry Exaggeration Parody Irony
Generalization
Incongruity
Inversion/Reversal
Persona

8. Reduction:
A degradation or devaluation of the victim by reducing his stature and dignity.
Reduction is achieved by:
Stripping the victim of rank or status
Reducing man to an animal image
Depriving man of his freedom and uniqueness
Condemning man to repeat the same movements over and over
Reducing an individual to a type (archetype)

9. Example of Reduction

10. Mimicry:
Reproduction of a victim’s compulsive, unconscious gestures. Occurs when a normal action is skewed to make the victim a target of the satirist. Example:

11. Exaggeration:
Overstatements that are used to prove the author’s point in the criticism. Example:

12. Parody Taking over and mastering another’s style.
Reproduces the style with ludicrous distortion (not mere mimicry)
Reduces the individual style of another
Used for mocking of the ideas of a person, place, or thing.
Example:

13. Another Example of Parody:

14. Irony The use of double meaning. Irony comes in three flavors:
Situational: discrepancy between the expected result and actual results
Verbal: when an author says one thing and means something else.
Dramatic: when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know

15. Not an example of Irony… Just funny!

16. Irony: Examples

17. Generalization
To apply an expectation, outcome or characteristic to all cases (regardless of individual character)
Stereotyping
Example:

18. Incongruity The use of absurdity to criticize
Putting things out of place to point out their flaws
Example:

19. Inversion/Reversal
Reversal of normal order, that is, the roles people play, a play on words, etc.

20. How do people get away with blatantly making fun of other people???
They’re invisible?
They’re shape shifters?
They’re vampires?
They run fast?
They’re impervious to criticism?

21. They employ a persona Persona: the mask the author wears.
None of these techniques works without the use of persona: Persona is the tool that allows the author to assume another identity to safely make his point.
What? No… That’s not me! I would never say that (to your face)!!! That’s just my persona…

22. Persona: Examples Lady Gaga Hulk Hogan
Characters created by players of video games (avatars).
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Terry Gene Bollea, Stephen Tyrone Colbert
Lady Gaga
Hulk Hogan