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Definition: satire from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 a novel, play, entertainment, etc, in which topical issues, folly, or evil are held up to scorn by means of ridicule and irony

2 the genre constituted by such works

3 the use of ridicule, irony, etc, to create such an effect

[C16: from Latin satira a mixture, from satur sated, from satis enough]


SATIRE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Satire is both a mode and a genre of verse and prose lit. that adopts a critical attitude toward its target with the goal of censuring human folly. Satire is an eminently versatile form whose structure, style, tone, and subjects vary across a wide spectrum, but generally intends, as Jonathan Swift states, "to mend the world" ("A Vindication of Mr. Gay and The Beggar's Opera") . In terms of its purpose, satire is polemical, contentiously attacking its victims with the hope of dissuading readers from vice and persuading them (to greater and lesser degrees) toward virtue. In terms of structure, satire is primarily a borrower of literary and rhetorical forms, using other genres to support its didactic agenda (see Guilhamet). As Paulson describes it, satire explores the lowest range of potential human actions within a framework or fiction that best serves its ridiculing function (Fictions of Satire) . Some of satire's favorite housing fictions include diatribe (the outraged declamations of…
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Full text Article satire

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Literary satire is a form or mode of writing the principal purpose of which is punitive. As noted by Wyndham LEWIS in his introduction to the 1955 edition of The Apes of God , "At the word 'satire' one thinks of institutions and of persons being subjected to punishment of a penal intensity." The…
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Full text Article satire

From Word Origins
A satire is etymologically a ‘verse medley’, an ‘assortment of pieces on various subjects’. The word comes via Old French satire from Latin satira ‘mixture’, an alteration of an earlier satura . This is said to have been derived from satus ‘full’ (a relative of satis ‘enough’, source of English…
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Full text Article satire

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Literary work in which human foibles and institutions are mocked, ridiculed, and parodied. In Roman times, a satire was a poem in hexameters, a form established by the work of Lucilius, Horace , and Juvenal . In the Middle Ages, it often took the form of fabliaux or bestiaries, using animal…
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Full text Article SATIRE.

From The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
Satire is both a mode and a genre of verse and prose lit. that adopts a critical attitude toward its target with the goal of censuring human folly. Satire is an eminently versatile form whose structure, style, tone, and subjects vary across a wide spectrum, but generally intends, as Jonathan Swift…
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Full text Article satire

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises—vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality—and to effect reform…
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Full text Article Satires

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
ca. early second century CE Work Author: Juvenal In his series of 16 verse satires , Juvenal alludes to events datable to as early as 96 CE and as late, perhaps, as 127. At sometime within that window, or perhaps a little later, the satires were published. As the first of the satires opens, a reader…
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Full text Article Satire

From The Classical Tradition
As John Dryden (1631-1700) observed in the influential preface to his English translations of the Roman satirists Juvenal (ca. 60-140 ce ) and Persius (34-62 ce ), "Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire" (1692): "If we take satire in the general signification of the word, as it is…
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Full text Article satire

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
The use of irony, ridicule, sarcasm, or humor to expose the true, contemptuous nature of some thing — a person, institution, tradition, etc. Ezra Pound writing in Literary Essays said, “Satire reminds one that certain things are not worthwhile. It draws one to consider time wasted.” The quality of…
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Full text Article satire

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Horace, bronze medal, 4th century; in the...
Artistic form in which human or individual vices, folly, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to bring about improvement. Literature and drama are its chief vehicles, but it is also found in such…
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Full text Article SATIRE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Satire is both a mode and a genre of verse and prose lit. that adopts a critical attitude toward its target with the goal of censuring human folly. Satire is an eminently versatile form whose structure, style, tone, and subjects vary across a wide spectrum, but generally intends, as Jonathan Swift…
| 3,269 words
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