Satire and Social Commentary Flashcards
Grade 10 · English · Flashcards
Key terms, techniques, authors, and works for analyzing satire and social commentary in literature and media.
Flashcards
- Satire
- A literary mode using humor, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose vices or social ills, aiming at awareness or reform.
- Horatian Satire
- Gentle, witty, tolerantly amused satire targeting universal human foibles; named for Roman poet Horace.
- Juvenalian Satire
- Harsh, bitter, morally indignant satire attacking systemic corruption; named for Roman satirist Juvenal; e.g., Swift's A Modest Proposal.
- Irony
- A gap between stated and actual meaning; satire's most fundamental technique — the surface says one thing, the real message says another.
- Hyperbole
- Deliberate extreme exaggeration used to expose a quality's absurdity or harm by amplifying it beyond realistic proportion.
- Parody
- Imitation of a recognizable style/genre, distorted for comic effect and/or to critique the original form or the values it embodies.
- Understatement
- Treating something serious as trivial; makes the true scale of a problem apparent through the contrast between tone and subject matter.
- Allegory
- Extended narrative in which characters/events represent abstract ideas or real-world institutions (e.g., Animal Farm = Soviet totalitarianism).
- Deadpan
- Delivering absurd, ironic, or exaggerated content in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact tone that amplifies the satirical effect.
- A Modest Proposal (1729)
- Jonathan Swift's Juvenalian masterpiece proposing (ironically) that the Irish poor sell their babies as food, exposing British colonial brutality.
- Animal Farm (1945)
- Orwell's Juvenalian political allegory in which farm animals overthrow humans but replicate their tyranny, satirizing the Soviet Revolution's betrayal of socialist ideals.
- Social Commentary
- Writing that directly or indirectly critiques social, political, or cultural conditions; satire is one form, but commentary also includes dystopian fiction, op-ed, and documentary.
- Target of Satire
- The specific person, institution, or behavior being critiqued; identifying the target is the first step in analyzing any satirical work.
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