Three Dogs, Some Satire, A Girl and Europe

For instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies. Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, and it's not obligated to solve them. For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions. The state of political satire in a given society reflects the tolerance or intolerance that characterizes it, [20] and the state of civil liberties and human rights.

Under totalitarian regimes any criticism of a political system, and especially satire, is suppressed. A typical example is the Soviet Union where the dissidents , such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were under strong pressure from the government. While satire of everyday life in the USSR was allowed, the most prominent satirist being Arkady Raikin , political satire existed in the form of anecdotes [27] that made fun of Soviet political leaders, especially Brezhnev , famous for his narrow-mindedness and love for awards and decorations.

Satire is a diverse genre which is complex to classify and define, with a wide range of satiric "modes". Satirical literature can commonly be categorized as either Horatian, Juvenalian, or Menippean. Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist Horace 65—8 BCE , playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus wrote Satires to gently ridicule the dominant opinions and "philosophical beliefs of ancient Rome and Greece" Rankin. Horatian satire follows this same pattern of "gently [ridiculing] the absurdities and follies of human beings" Drury.

Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society. Horatian satire is a gentle reminder to take life less seriously and evokes a wry smile. Shamekia Thomas suggests, "In a work using Horatian satire, readers often laugh at the characters in the story who are the subject of mockery as well as themselves and society for behaving in those ways.

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Juvenalian satire, named for the writings of the Roman satirist Juvenal late first century — early second century AD , is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of the public figures and institutions of the Republic and actively attacked them through his literature.

Juvenal also, unlike Horace, attacked public officials and governmental organizations through his satires, regarding their opinions as not just wrong, but evil. Following in this tradition, Juvenalian satire addresses perceived social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule.

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This form is often pessimistic, characterized by the use of irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire can often be classified as Juvenalian. A Juvenal satirist's goal is generally to provoke some sort of political or societal change because he sees his opponent or object as evil or harmful. Jonathan Swift has been established as an author who "borrowed heavily from Juvenal's techniques in [his critique] of contemporary English society" Podzemny.

In the history of theatre there has always been a conflict between engagement and disengagement on politics and relevant issue, between satire and grotesque on one side, and jest with teasing on the other. The side-effect of teasing is that it humanizes and draws sympathy for the powerful individual towards which it is directed. Satire instead uses the comic to go against power and its oppressions, has a subversive character, and a moral dimension which draws judgement against its targets. Teasing includes light and affectionate parody, good-humoured mockery, simple one-dimensional poking fun, and benign spoofs.

By contrast, teasing never touches on the core issue, never makes a serious criticism judging the target with irony ; it never harms the target's conduct, ideology and position of power; it never undermines the perception of his morality and cultural dimension. Types of satire can also be classified according to the topics it deals with. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes , the primary topics of literary satire have been politics , religion and sex. Scatology has a long literary association with satire, [49] [55] [56] as it is a classical mode of the grotesque , the grotesque body and the satiric grotesque.

Another classification by topics is the distinction between political satire, religious satire and satire of manners. Comedy of manners , sometimes also called satire of manners, criticizes mode of life of common people; political satire aims at behavior, manners of politicians, and vices of political systems. Historically, comedy of manners, which first appeared in British theater in , has uncritically accepted the social code of the upper classes.

Another analysis of satire is the spectrum of his possible tones: Satire is found not only in written literary forms. In preliterate cultures it manifests itself in ritual and folk forms, as well as in trickster tales and oral poetry.

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It appears also in graphic arts, music, sculpture, dance, cartoon strips , and graffiti. One of the earliest examples of what we might call satire, The Satire of the Trades , [70] is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is not only useful, but far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck [71] think that the context was meant to be serious. The Papyrus Anastasi I [72] late 2nd millennium BC contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements.

The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although the terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the Greek playwright Aristophanes one of the best known early satirists: He is also notable for the persecution he underwent. His early play Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician Callimedon. The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippus of Gadara. His own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of diatribe.

As in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease.

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The first Roman to discuss satire critically was Quintilian , who invented the term to describe the writings of Gaius Lucilius. The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are Horace and Juvenal , who wrote during the early days of the Roman Empire.

Other important satirists in ancient Latin are Gaius Lucilius and Persius. Satire in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized Augustus , he used veiled ironic terms. In contrast, Pliny reports that the 6th-century-BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.

He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like they, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did. He goes on to describe a far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like Indica and The Odyssey. Medieval Arabic poetry included the satiric genre hija.

Satire was introduced into Arabic prose literature by the Afro-Arab author Al-Jahiz in the 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology , sociology and psychology , he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations.

He was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in hija , satirical poetry. Another satirical story based on this preference was an Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member". In the 10th century, the writer Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return.

The terms " comedy " and "satire" became synonymous after Aristotle 's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Islamic philosophers and writers, such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija satirical poetry.

They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or troubled beginnings and happy endings, associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature. Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature.

Between and , Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires. In the Early Middle Ages , examples of satire were the songs by Goliards or vagants now best known as an anthology called Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th-century composer Carl Orff. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the High Middle Ages and the birth of modern vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by Chaucer. The disrespectful manner was considered "unchristian" and ignored, except for the moral satire , which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms.

Sometimes epic poetry epos was mocked, and even feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre. Elizabethan "satire" typically in pamphlet form therefore contains more straightforward abuse than subtle irony. The French Huguenot Isaac Casaubon pointed out in that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term satira, not satyr , and the sense of wittiness reflecting the "dishfull of fruits" became more important again.

Seventeenth-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" Dryden. In the s a new wave of verse satire broke with the publication of Hall 's Virgidemiarum , six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen. Although Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model. The Age of Enlightenment , an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries advocating rationality, produced a great revival of satire in Britain.

This club included several of the notable satirists of earlyth-century Britain.

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They focused their attention on Martinus Scriblerus, "an invented learned fool The turn to the 18th century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire, to biting "juvenal" satire. Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty.

His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book Gulliver's Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire" [88] that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world.

His satirical Mac Flecknoe was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical The Rape of the Lock. Other satirical works by Pope include the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot. May 21, was a satirist known for his Horatian satirist style and translation of the Iliad. Famous throughout and after the long 18th century , Pope died in Pope does not actively attack the self-important pomp of the British aristocracy, but rather presents it in such a way that gives the reader a new perspective from which to easily view the actions in the story as foolish and ridiculous.

A mockery of the upper class, more delicate and lyrical than brutal, Pope nonetheless is able to effectively illuminate the moral degradation of society to the public. The Rape of the Lock assimilates the masterful qualities of a heroic epic, such as the Iliad , which Pope was translating at the time of writing The Rape of the Lock. However, Pope applied these qualities satirically to a seemingly petty egotistical elitist quarrel to prove his point wryly.

Daniel Defoe pursued a more journalistic type of satire, being famous for his The True-Born Englishman which mocks xenophobic patriotism, and The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters —advocating religious toleration by means of an ironical exaggeration of the highly intolerant attitudes of his time. The pictorial satire of William Hogarth is a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England.

Ebenezer Cooke — , author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" , was among the first American colonialists to write literary satire. Benjamin Franklin — and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous. Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the Victorian era — and Edwardian period, such as Punch and Fun Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

In fact, in The Yeomen of the Guard , a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert's own intent:. Novelists such as Charles Dickens often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues. Continuing the tradition of Swiftian journalistic satire, Sidney Godolphin Osborne was the most prominent writer of scathing "Letters to the Editor" of the London Times. Famous in his day, he is now all but forgotten. His maternal grandfather William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland was considered to be a possible candidate for the authorship of the Junius letters.

If this were true, we can read Osborne as following in his grandfather's satiric "Letters to the Editor" path. Osborne's satire was so bitter and biting that at one point he received a public censure from Parliament 's then Home Secretary Sir James Graham. Osborne wrote mostly in the Juvenalian mode over a wide range of topics mostly centered on British government's and landlords' mistreatment of poor farm workers and field laborers. He bitterly opposed the New Poor Laws and was passionate on the subject of Great Britain's botched response to the Irish Famine and its mistreatment of soldiers during the Crimean War.

Later in the nineteenth century, in the United States, Mark Twain — grew to become American's greatest satirist: His hero, Huck, is a rather simple but goodhearted lad who is ashamed of the "sinful temptation" that leads him to help a runaway slave. In fact his conscience, warped by the distorted moral world he has grown up in, often bothers him most when he is at his best. He is prepared to do good, believing it to be wrong. Twain's younger contemporary Ambrose Bierce — gained notoriety as a cynic , pessimist and black humorist with his dark, bitterly ironic stories, many set during the American Civil War , which satirized the limitations of human perception and reason.

Bierce's most famous work of satire is probably The Devil's Dictionary , in which the definitions mock cant, hypocrisy and received wisdom. Karl Kraus is considered the first major European satirist since Jonathan Swift. Herein lies its truly great ability to triumph, its scorn for its adversary and its hidden fear of it. Herein lies its venom, its amazing energy of hate, and quite frequently, its grief, like a black frame around glittering images.

Herein lie its contradictions, and its power. Mencken , used satire as their main weapon, and Mencken in particular is noted for having said that "one horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms " in the persuasion of the public to accept a criticism. Menchen , and It Can't Happen Here , and his books often explored and satirized contemporary American values. The film The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin is itself a parody of Adolf Hitler ; Chaplin later declared that he would have not made the film if he had known about the concentration camps.

In the same period, Paul Krassner 's magazine The Realist began publication, to become immensely popular during the s and early s among people in the counterculture ; it had articles and cartoons that were savage, biting satires of politicians such as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon , the Vietnam War , the Cold War and the War on Drugs.

O'Rourke , and Tony Hendra , among others. A more humorous brand of satire enjoyed a renaissance in the UK in the early s with the satire boom , led by such luminaries as Peter Cook , Alan Bennett , Jonathan Miller , and Dudley Moore , whose stage show Beyond the Fringe was a hit not only in Britain, but also in the United States.

Joseph Heller 's most famous work, Catch , satirizes bureaucracy and the military, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. Strangelove starring Peter Sellers was a popular satire on the Cold War. Contemporary popular usage of the term "satire" is often very imprecise.

While satire often uses caricature and parody , by no means all uses of these or other humorous devices are satiric.

Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article. One of the most watched UK television shows of the s and early s, the puppet show Spitting Image was a satire of the royal family , politics, entertainment, sport and British culture of the era. The television program South Park —ongoing relies almost exclusively on satire to address issues in American culture, with episodes addressing anti-Semitism , militant atheism , homophobia , environmentalism , corporate culture , political correctness and anti-Catholicism , among many other issues.

Stephen Colbert 's television program, The Colbert Report —14 , is instructive in the methods of contemporary American satire. Colbert's character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points and wags his finger at them, and "unwittingly" uses a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political satire: The American sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live is also known for its satirical impressions and parodies of prominent persons and politicians, among some of the most notable, their parodies of U.

Other political satire includes various political causes in the past, including the relatively successful Polish Beer-Lovers' Party and the joke political candidates Molly the Dog [] and Brian Miner. In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist is Sir Terry Pratchett , author of the internationally best-selling Discworld book series. One of the most well-known and controversial British satirists is Chris Morris , co-writer and director of Four Lions. In Canada, satire has become an important part of the comedy scene.

Stephen Leacock was one of the best known early Canadian satirists, and in the early 20th century, he achieved fame by targeting the attitudes of small town life. In more recent years, Canada has had several prominent satirical television series and radio shows. The Canadian organization Canada News Network provides commentary on contemporary news events that are primarily Canadian in nature. Canadian songwriter Nancy White uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on CBC Radio.

Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour. Al Capp 's satirical comic strip Li'l Abner was censored in September Said Edward Leech of Scripps-Howard, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks Garry Trudeau , whose comic strip Doonesbury focuses on satire of the political system, and provides a trademark cynical view on national events. Trudeau exemplifies humour mixed with criticism. For example, the character Mark Slackmeyer lamented that because he was not legally married to his partner, he was deprived of the "exquisite agony" of experiencing a nasty and painful divorce like heterosexuals.

This, of course, satirized the claim that gay unions would denigrate the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Like some literary predecessors, many recent television satires contain strong elements of parody and caricature ; for instance, the popular animated series The Simpsons and South Park both parody modern family and social life by taking their assumptions to the extreme; both have led to the creation of similar series. As well as the purely humorous effect of this sort of thing, they often strongly criticise various phenomena in politics, economic life, religion and many other aspects of society, and thus qualify as satirical.

Due to their animated nature, these shows can easily use images of public figures and generally have greater freedom to do so than conventional shows using live actors. The video garnered half a million views on Facebook in less than a week. They call for Macron to resign and for the reform to be withdrawn, while expressing support for the Kurds , railway workers and campus employees with insecure jobs.

At which point the dog, apparently breaking with that spirit of solidarity, ducked under the table for a lie-down. The next morning, a Twitter-user purporting to be the very same Tolbiac dog, dispatched a first plaintive missive: It reeks of pot here. The mysterious Guevara describes his travails, sequestered in the student protester commune. His anecdotes, ostensibly behind the scenes on a campus occupied by young and earnest far-leftists, are a smattering of bourgeois names and wry remarks. His meagre breakfast is the debris one might salvage in a squatted Paris university: Julie tells her she is humansplaining.

A vote designates a girl to go to the store and buy Guevara some kibble. I come upon Candice and Xavier in an odd position in the toilets on the 7th floor.