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Download Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal” Irony and Sarcasm Literary Satire
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Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal” Dr. Theresa Thompson English 2130 Fall 2009 Irony and Sarcasm • Irony: a contradiction or incongruity between appearance and / or expectation. • Sarcasm: intentional derision, generally directed at another person, and intended to hurt. – Can jeeringly state the opposite of what is meant so as to heighten the insult. Visual satire Literary Satire • Paints a distorted verbal picture of part of the world in order to show its true moral (as opposed to merely its physical) nature. – May be in verse or prose form. – Relies on an a priori agreement regarding moral behavior. • Relies on irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm. • 18th-Century satire: Attempts to be wise, smooth, urbane, and skeptical. – The prose satiric tone is often harsh, sharp, and sometimes downright nasty. Ironic Iraqi dinar: presents a distorted picture in order to show true moral nature of US “interest” in Iraq. A priori moral assumption: U.S. president should NOT be affiliated with Iraqi money. 1 Remember the Enlightenment Principles? Types of Satire • Direct: relies on a first-person narrator (the adversarius) – Horatian: pokes fun at human folly. More comedic, less serious. – Juvenalian: relies on dignified denunciations. Often more politically focused. • Indirect: satiric effect is achieved through modes of presentation & representation, not direct condemnation. • Swift combines the two types and is more Juvenalian than Horatian. – Relies on your ability to understand irony. Jonathan Swift • Objectivity – Science is the paradigm for all true knowledge. • Right use of reason – claims to authority grounded in reason • Reason is independent of self / context – complex connections between reason, autonomy, and freedom. • Language is “transparent • These ideas of the Enlightenment enable the irony in 18th-century satire. Swift: “A Modest Proposal” • Narrative “I” • Was Irish. • Religious Biography • So, would this man seriously suggest eating Irish babies? – Self-effacing but…. “As to my own part…” (484). • Irony – Title: is this a “modest” proposal? (485) • Language / resources – Word choices: “breeders,” “dams” (484) – Referenced “authorities”: Americans and Formosans • Cannibals and savages • Sarcasm – Moral expediency (484, 486-487) – Rejects actual moral options (488) 2
