Survey of American Satire in Literature

Satire is an ancient rhetorical art form that dates back to the Romans, and which in the Anglophone world stretches all the way back to the Middle Ages and the barbing of Geoffrey Chaucer. However, this rhetorical form rose to prominence in the English language in a century in which political and social turbulence greatly rose, namely in 17th century England. The middle of the century (1642-1651) saw a major civil war whose political remnants are still visible in present day British society. The post war periods ranging from Cromwell and the Commonwealth and the Restoration through to the Augustan and Georgian Ages gave rise to what is now referred to as the golden age of satirical writing – the 18th century. The 100 year span from 1650 to 1750 produced the stalwarts of English language satire, such as John Dryden, William Congreve, Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope. Our course will pick up the torch in the American literary context in colonial times around 1700 and end at the present. As civil strife increases so does the production of satirical texts. Some of the texts we will be reading are Ebenezer Cook’s -The Sot-Weed Factor” (1708), Jonathan Odell’s -The American Times” (1780), Benjamin Franklin’s -The Sale of the Hessians” (1778) and his -Rules by Which a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One” (1773) as well as Washington Irving’s -Tales of a Traveler” (1824), Mark Twain’s -Life on the Mississippi” (1876), Sinclair Lewis’s -Babbit” (1922), Dorothy Parker’s -Far From Well”, Joseph Heller’s -Catch 22” (1961), Kurt Vonnegut’s -Hocus Pocus” (1990), Gore Vidal’s -Ronnie and Nancy: A Life in Pictures”, and Molly Ivins’s -New Heights of Piffle”. In each class session we will use the theories of satire and irony we read in the first sittings to analyze the wide range of texts we are dealing with. Short 10 minute student presentations will start each session off by explaining cultural background and time period information. The remainder of each session will be devoted to textual analysis. Aside from normal literary analysis, for each text we will also locate the satirical background and or target text. So be prepared to read exceptional satirical poems, excerpts from novels, short stories, memoirs, essays, and news paper articles. Students will need to download and print the texts out from Moodle. Additionally, the student needs to acquire a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s -Hocus Pocus”. Anglistik - Amerikanistik For 2 KP: Regular attendance and participation; short group presentation; in-class written assignments For 5 KP: Same as above except that one in-class assignment will be expanded into an essay For 7 KP: Same as above except that one in-class assignment well be expanded into a research paper Universität Siegen SoSe 2011 M.A. Hulse Seth Thomas M.A