Satire

by Jane Ogborn, Peter Buckroyd, Pamela Bickley

Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. The purpose of satire is to expose human hypocrisy, vice and folly, and because these aspects of human behaviour are not particular to any one historical period, satires can be understood by readers at any moment in time. This book explores the social and political circumstances to deepen that understanding. Text extracts are included from Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, E.E. Cummings and Evelyn Waugh.

130 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2001

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the excellent Cambridge Contexts in Literature series targeted at students and designed as introductions to field of literary study. This is heavy in texts for analysis, example and engagement and effectively weaves together general issues in approaches to literary study and satire specific issues, including the challenging areas of tone, mood, form and so forth to allow useful exploration of parody, invective, lampooning and caricature, but also highlighting the distinctions between satire as genre and satire and method.

All very technical but a great reminder of ways to and issues in approaching satire.