This course will explore the long tradition of satire: literature dedicated to exposing folly, hypocrisy, and human error and to holding them up for ridicule. We will focus on the history of satire (its evolution from ancient ritual curses to THE ONION); its rhetoric and grammar (irony, invective, humor); and its moral and political uses and implications. We will consider satire in relation to comedy and tragedy, to obscenity and censorship, and to caricature and parody. Throughout the course we will return to the central question of satire: Is there hope for improvement, or is the human condition beyond remedy? |