For week 2 of 3rd quarter, satire is a literary art of ridicule we have been working on. We have talked about the different targets such as a place, person, type of person, society and/or its institutions. For example, the United States, Obama, picky eaters, and school. Also there are the types of Satire which include Horatian (Amused satirist that tries to bring a smile to the audience while helping them realize how silly they are), Juvenalian (Angry satirist who tires to arouse a moral indignation through bitter attacks), and Menippean (a chaotic, broad satire); which we have not worked on as much. We also talked about the approach whether the satire is direct or indirect. To help strengthen the satire, techniques such as Irony (verbal, situational, dramatic), Burlesque (either high or low), Parody, Caricature, and more, are displayed. In some cases, the aim of a satire is something I actually have a hard time figuring out from the other five components; probably because of confusing it with theme; in which it gives the idea about life that is revealed in a work of literature rather than how it is to bring about change to improve the world. We defined literature to instruct and please while a satire aims to improve humanity/human society.
We are starting to read Candide by Voltaire. Candide is being taught by a philosopher, Pangloss, who represents a early philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz. He preached about the importance of “optimism” that everything is for the best and that they are in the best of all possible worlds. It's is as though Voltaire has made an indirect attack in his satire against Leibniz's philosophy. We talked about how his simplicity leads him to some misfortune. “The next day, as they were leaving the table after dinner, Cunegonde and Candide found themselves behind a screen. She dropped her handkerchief, he picked it up; she innocently took his hand, and he innocently kissed hers with extraordinary animation, ardor and grace; their lips met, their eyes flashed, their knees trembled, their hands wandered. Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh happed to pass by the scree; seeing this cause and effect , he drove Candide from the castle with vigorous kicks in the backside” (Voltaire 19). From this, Candids act of simply love struck or act of foolishness in the Baron's matter, lead him to be kicked out of the castle. This part/paragraph of Candide's actions seems to be told in a more slower narrator pace rather than what happened after he got kicked out; it is perceived that his walk from the castle to his next location is shorter than is “simple actions” that lead to a misfortune. Other misfortunes such as beatings and syphilis are taking place while he still believes in his mind of belonging to the “best of all possible worlds”. So is he still saying that everything is for the best, even though he stumbles across trouble?
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Nice initial question about the text, Senia!
I noticed that you mentioned that aim was something that you struggled with and it was something I struggled with as well. To better understand I searched satire on Google and I found a definition I thought was interesting. “The best satire does not seek to do harm or damage by its ridicule, unless we speak of damage to the structure of vice, but rather it seeks to create a shock of recognition and to make vice repulsive so that the vice will be expunged from the person or society under attack or from the person or society intended to benefit by the attack...the formula for satire is one of honey and medicine.” I liked it because it points out that the satire itself can’t alone change what is being satirized; it’s the actions that stem from what is being suggested that do. I especially enjoyed the part about the formula of satire, although I don’t quite 100% agree with it because satire isn’t always sweet (shown by Juvenalian satire).
source for definition: http://www.virtualsalt.com/satire.htm
Senia you said that you had a hard time identifying aim because you confuse it with theme. I’d like to point out that (in my opinion) aim and theme are actually quite alike. Theme is basically aim except aim is applied to satire and theme to literature. Theme is defined as “a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc…” taken from the website http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Theme. Aim is defined as “to intend or direct for a particular effect or purpose” by the website http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aim. Well, can’t the theme of a piece of literature or satire also teach? Can’t theme also be placed to intend a particular effect and teach? I have to disagree that literature can’t teach and instruct. I think many novels can be a piece of literature but also have an aim that comes from its theme. Take for example the novel Grapes of Wrath. One of its themes is man’s inhumanity to man. This novel isn’t a piece of satire but for the people living in the time when it was published (or even now!) what might they take and learn from the theme? How might they change their behaviors? They may become kinder and less selfish. Does anyone really think the author didn’t hope people would change their actions after reading the novel and identifying the theme? I find that extremely hard to believe. So what I’m basically saying Senia is if you have a hard time identifying aim but not theme, next time take the theme and think of what the satirist would want people to do based on the theme.
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