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On the Discourse of Satire: Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humor (Linguistic Approaches to Literature, 2) PDF

257 Pages·2016·1.75 MB·English
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<DOCINFOAUTHOR""TITLE"OntheDiscourseofSatire:Towardsastylisticmodelofsatiricalhumour"SUBJECT"LinguisticApproachestoLiterature,Volume2"KEYWORDS""SIZEHEIGHT"220"WIDTH"150"VOFFSET"4"> OntheDiscourseofSatire Linguistic Approaches to Literature LinguisticApproachestoLiterature(LAL)providesaninternationalforumfor researchers who believe that the application of linguistic methods leads to a deeperandmorefar-reachingunderstandingofmanyaspectsofliterature.The emphasis will be on pragmatic approaches intersecting with areas such as discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, rhetoric, philosophy, cognitivelinguistics,psycholinguisticsandstylistics. Editors GerardJ.Steen WillievanPeer PeterVerdonk FreeUniversityAmsterdam UniversityofMunich UniversityofAmsterdam AdvisoryEditorialBoard TimothyR.Austin PaisleyLivingston LoyolaUniversityChicago UniversityofCopenhagen DouglasBiber ColinMartindale NorthernArizonaUniversity UniversityofMaine LubomirDolezel SaraMills UniversityofToronto SheffieldHalamUniversity DonaldC.Freeman MickShort UniversityofSouthernCalifornia LancasterUniversity HaraldFricke MichaelToolan UniversityofFribourg UniversityofBirmingham RaymondW.GibbsJr. ReuvenTsur UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz TelAvivUniversity RachelGiora JeanJacquesWeber TelAvivUniversity UniversityCentreLuxemburg Volume2 OntheDiscourseofSatire:Towardsastylisticmodelofsatiricalhumour byPaulSimpson On the Discourse of Satire Towards a stylistic model of satirical humour Paul Simpson Queen’sUniversityBelfast JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany Amsterdam(cid:1)/(cid:1)Philadelphia TM Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements 8 ofAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences–Permanence ofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1984. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Simpson,Paul,1959- Onthediscourseofsatire:towardsastylisticmodelofsatiricalhumour/ PaulSimpson. p. cm.(LinguisticApproachestoLiterature,issn1569–3112;v.2) Includesbibliographicalreferences. 1.Discourseanalysis,Literary.2.Satire--Historyandcriticism-- Theory,etc.I.Title.II.Series. P302.5.S56 2003 808’.0014-dc21 2003055682 isbn9027233330(Eur.)/1588114392(US)(Hb;alk.paper) isbn9027233349(Eur.)/1588114406(US)(Pb;alk.paper) ©2003–JohnBenjaminsB.V. Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,byprint,photoprint,microfilm,or anyothermeans,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher. JohnBenjaminsPublishingCo.·P.O.Box36224·1020meAmsterdam·TheNetherlands JohnBenjaminsNorthAmerica·P.O.Box27519·Philadelphiapa19118-0519·usa Table of contents Preface vii Acknowledgements xi Listoffigures xiii Chapter1 Introduction 1 1.1 Satireashumorousdiscourse 1 1.2 Themodel:Inbrief,andinabstract 7 1.3 Aboutthisbook 11 Chapter2 Linguisticapproachestohumour 15 2.1 Introduction 15 2.2 Linguisticapproachestohumour 16 2.3 TheSemanticScriptTheoryofHumour 29 2.4 TheGeneralTheoryofVerbalHumourandbeyond 37 2.5 Reviewandconclusions 44 Chapter3 Literary-criticalapproachestosatiricalhumour 47 3.1 Introduction 47 3.2 Literary-criticalapproachestosatiricalhumour 48 3.3 Problemsandissuesinliterary-criticalapproaches 57 3.4 Summaryandextension 63 Chapter4 Satireasdiscourse 69 4.1 Introduction 69 4.2 Satireasadiscursivepractice 72  Tableofcontents 4.3 Satireasironywithinirony 90 4.4 Satire,irony,discourse:Applyingthemodelofanalysis 97 4.5 Summaryandconclusions 108 Chapter5 Waysofdoingsatire 111 5.1 Introduction 111 5.2 Theoreticalpreliminaries:Satire,parodyandirony 113 5.3 Metonymicandmetaphoricsatiricalmethod 125 5.4 Conclusions 149 Chapter6 Satiricaluptake 153 6.1 Introduction 153 6.2 Amodelforsatiricaluptake:Habermasand“universal pragmatics” 158 6.3 Validityclaimsandsatiricaluptake 165 6.4 Summary 185 Chapter7 Whensatiregoeswrong 187 7.1 Introduction 187 7.2 Developingacasestudy:AlanClarkvs.theEveningStandard 188 7.3 Analysis,overviewandcommentary 194 7.4 Extensionandsummary 205 Chapter8 Analysingsatireasdiscourse 211 8.1 Overview 211 8.2 Extension 214 8.3 Development 218 References 221 Nameindex 233 Subjectindex 237 Preface I suppose it would be accurate to say that the “idea” for this book arose out of an experience during a university seminar which took place, alarmingly, overtwodecadesago.Iwasthenstillafresh-facedandfollically-unchallenged undergraduate reading a degree in literature and linguistics, and the episode inquestionoccurredduringtheweekwhenwewere“doing”that(in)famous Anglo-Irish writer, JonathanSwift. Swift of course cannotbe “done”without some referenceto his famous skit, the “ModestProposal”,in which an unas- suming personaurgesthe eating of children in orderto solvethe problemof Irish overpopulation.A programme advocating the lessening by cannibalism of“thenumberofPapistsamongus”provedtobeascontentiousahotpotato, sotospeak,intheNorthernIrelandofthelatenineteenseventiesasitnodoubt wasineighteenthcenturyDublin.AstoSwift’sironicpurposeintheskit,ev- eryone, bar one student, reached a satirical interpretation. Unusually for an otherwise parochial undergraduate community, the student who “didn’t get it”happenedtohavebeenbornandraisedseveralthousandmilesawayfrom Northern Ireland. His objection to Swift was resolutely framed: the proposal was “disgusting” and that if this was the best Ireland could do literary-wise, thenitwasaverypoorshow.Thetutor’sriposte tothis wasperhapsthepre- dictableone.ButSwiftdidn’treallymeanit,itwasliterature,itwas,well,ironic. Towhichthestudentreplied,withinexorablelogic,thatofcoursehemeantit because hesaid it.Andsoitwenton,asan everwideninginterpretivechasm pushed the two positions further and further apart. Some twenty five years later–suchitseemsisthenecessarygestationperiodformyacademicoutput these days– I came tothe ideaof a project which exploredthe interpretative chasmbetweenthetwopositionstakenupinthatseminar.No-onewaswrong in that interchange, although no-onewas completelyright either; both argu- mentscouldbe sustainedwithsomedegreeofvalidity.Quite whysuch adu- alityofinterpretationispossible,andwhatthatsaysabouttheparticularform ofdiscoursethatissatiricalhumour,isoneofthemainpreoccupationsofthis monograph.  Preface Thebookcomesprincipallyoutoftheacademictraditionofmodernstylis- tics.Thatsimplymeansthatitappliestotextavarietyofmodelsoflanguage, linguisticsandpragmatics.Whilethattraditionreflectsbestthetypeofmeth- odsusedandthesortsofanalyticframeworksapplied,thisstudydepartsfrom muchotherstylisticworkinthatitsprincipalemphasisisneitherspecifically, nornecessarily,onliterarydiscourse.Theemphasisis,rather,onsatire’sstatus as a culturally situated discursive practice. This direction has not been taken becauseofanyantipathytowards“classical”literatureortowardsthepractice ofliterarycriticism.Itissimplythatsatire’s“everydayness”asavibrantanddy- namicformofverbalhumourhasbeensignificantlyneglectedintermsofthe amountofattentionithasreceivedwithin theacademe.Itisindeedacentral argumentofthisbookthata“non-literarystylistics”ofsatireismuchneeded, simplybecausecontinuedinterestoverthedecadesincanonicallyliteraryex- ampleshastendedtodrawaveilovertheday-to-dayfunctionsofsatireincon- temporarysocialanddiscoursecontexts.Thatsaid,itishopedthatthebroad designofthe modelproposedissufficientlywatertighttheoretically tobe ap- pliedacrosstothecanonofclassicalsatire,althoughsuchastudyisofcourse wellbeyondtheremitofthepresentproject. Writingabouthumourcanbeastrangeandsomewhatdisorientatingbusi- ness.Humourisgluedintosocial,culturalandevennationalcontexts,sowrit- ingamonographwhichhopefullydrawsaninternationalreadershipforcesone totreadafinelinewhen“unpacking”humourtexts;afinelinethatisbetween, ontheonehand,statingtheobviousintheexplicationofhumorousmaterial, or,ontheother,riskinglosingreadersbecausethetopicallyandculturallysitu- atedreferenceswithinthosetextshavenotbeenmadesufficientlytransparent. In this book, although the data derives primarily from humour practices in Britain, Ireland and the USA, the theoretical model advanced is designed to havegeneralisedapplication.In the designofthat modelIhope tohavecon- textualisedsufficientlythedatasoastomakeitaccessiblewithoutinsultingthe intelligenceofmyreaders.ButpleaseforgivemeifIdo. Another thing about writing about humour, a fact brought home to me midway through this project, is that while humorous texts become progres- sivelylessamusingthemoreonepaysattentiontothem,researchonhumour concomitantly starts to seem very strange indeed. I was struck particularly by one well-intentioned experimental study, written many years ago, on the impact of conflict on the basic humour mechanism. Victims of war-induced traumahadflashedbeforethemaseriesofcardscontaining“jokes”,towhich theirresponseswerenoted.Asitturnedout,thewarveteransreallydidn’tfind the experience very funny at all; in any case, the jokes themselves are “clas- Preface  sified” and now rest with the relevant Department of Defence of the august internationalpowerfromwhichtheresearchstemmed.Bydintofcuriousco- incidence,aroundthetimeofthepublicationofthatarticle, anepisodefrom the renowned Monty Python television series featured a sketch where some- one had discovered a joke so funny that it had the power to wipe out entire armies. So potent was this joke that parts of it had to be shown on cards by individualsoldiersinrelaysoasnottoendangerthetroopsonone’sownside. Afterspendingsomuchtimeonhumourresearch,Ifranklycannottellwhich ofthe twoscenarios,the academicstudyorthe Pythoncomedysketch, isthe morebizarre. Such is the nature of research into humour. An editorial commentmade many years ago in the first issue of the journal Humor points to a central dilemmainhumourresearch;namely,thathopingtoderiveamusementfrom an academicstudy of humour is akin tohoping to enjoygastronomicallythe recipe fordelicious meal.Well, the presentbook offersa fairly largish menu, comprisingseveralcourses,ofaveryparticulartypeofcuisine.Icanonlyhope thatthis“foodforthought”doesnotspoilyourfurtherenjoymentofthemeal.

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