Jonathan Swift and Satire

What is a satire?

A satire is any piece of writing or graphic media designed to make its readers feel critical – of themselves, of their fellow human beings, and of their society.

Satire is usually directed at humanity in general, but can also target a specific group or individual.

Horatian Satire

Horace was a Roman poet and satirist during the time of Augustus.

Horatian satire is humorous and intended to make us laugh at human foolishness or weakness.

Juvenalian SatireJuvenal was a Roman poet and satirist during the 1st century.

Juvenalian satire is harsh and intended to make us angry at human vice and corruption.

Satirists perform an important function in society when they expose errors and absurdities that we no longer notice because custom and familiarity have blinded us to them.

Satirists often use exaggeration, or hyperbole, to make their criticism. However, instead of giving constructive advice, satire usually just emphasizes what is wrong with the world.

Satirists are dissatisfied with things as they are, and they aim to make things better (in their opinion).

However, satirists are often misunderstood and accused of being:

-irresponsible

-controversial

-blasphemous

Tomorrow

Jon Stewart to Jon Swift-most influential prose writer

and satirist in 18th century England

-born in Dublin, Ireland of English parents

-A Modest Proposal satirizes the desperate conditions in Ireland and criticizes the English policies that kept the people of Ireland poor.

-Juvenalian satire that uses hyperbole to criticize attitudes towards the poor and English economic policies.

A Modest Proposal (1729)Swift assumes the role of a “practical” economic planner,

pretending to be objective, and full of common sense.

Swift protests against a purely statistical view of humanity.

-logical appeals: evidence, facts, statistics

-emotional appeals: words that arouse strong feelings

-ethical appeals: establish the writer as sincere and knowledgeable

England’s Marriage to Ireland-England conquered Ireland-England colonized Ireland

*meaning: England decided to take the Irish people’s land from them and build big castles for their own English aristocracy to live in like “little kings” with Irish people working the land so the English could profit. Sir Edmund Spencer, the Renaissance poet, was a “little king.”

-Ultimately, Ireland goes Braveheart on their English oppressors.