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/lit/ - Literature

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2236954 No.2236954 [Reply] [Original]

I want to know more about satire. Its history, its style, its methods, anything.
I guess I should start with Ancient Greece.
Who are the greatest authors I should know of?

>> No.2236960

Aristophanes

>> No.2236971
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2236971

>>2236960
Whenever I see that name, I remember my first experience with The Frogs and my laughing heartily at the first act. It was basically nothing but jokes about prostitutes.

>> No.2236993

is this a troll thread?
because the only fucking answer is aristophanes
please prove me wrong, would love it

>> No.2237005

>>2236993
Catcher in the rhy
not even trolling

>> No.2237017

http://www.amazon.com/Satire-Cambridge-Contexts-Literature-Ogborn/dp/0521787912/ref=pd_cp_b_1

http://www.amazon.com/Satire-Critical-Reintroduction-Dustin-Griffin/dp/0813108292/ref=sr_1_5?s=books
&ie=UTF8&qid=1323255187&sr=1-5

Also, if you're looking for a leap from Greek to Roman after Aristophanes, the poetry of Juvenal would be a good transition. Horace had an entire work called Satires as well.

For Renaissance satire, I would suggest Rabelais and Villon.

For English satire in particular, I'd recommend Swift's A Modest Proposal or Gulliver's Travels, pretty much anything and everything by Alexander Pope, and Sterne's Tristram Shandy as starting points.

If you haven't read Candide, you really should.

>> No.2237836
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2237836

>>2237017
thanks

>> No.2237841

Satire, or Menippean Satire, is actually only Roman technically. Indeed, it's the only literary genre that they made themselves (the rest they get from the Greeks).

Juvenal is the best to go for there. He's this sort of bitter misanthrope, kinda like Celine; no one on my course likes him at all (but me), because he's just such an arsehole. Try to read him in Latin, otherwise a translation, preferably Penguin or Oxford World Classics.

Aristophanes, which sort of links to what we know as Satire, makes comedies that are kinda surreal and also very dirty. It's difficult to choose a play that doesn't require a great deal of historical knowledge to enjoy: if you know your Tragedians, read The Frogs, your philosophers, the Clouds, or otherwise, maybe The Wasps or the Birds. In fact, start with The wasps maybe.

Don't read Horace's satires cause they're not really what you're looking for. They're more sort of didactic about the way people should live. In Latin, they're called Sermones (which means dialogues, discussions or just conversations) rather than Saturae, (which means basically Satires).

If the Satyricon was more complete, I would recommend it just cause it's simply obscene, a work in satirical metre about an impotent pederast who is hounded by Priapus, the god of phallus.

Canterbury Tales is vaguely satirical and just great fun in general so check that out.

>> No.2238111
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2238111

>>2237841
I've actually read Satyricon.
Thanks for the infos. I'll try to read Juvenal in Latin.

>> No.2238114

u should read satyricon then tell everybody you meet that the gospel of john is essentially satyricon fanfiction (theyll be impressed, use this as an icebreaker)

>> No.2238129

>>2238114
also watch fellini satyricon but mention you think it was over indulgent (indulgent is the key word)