Satire

by Jane Ogborn , Peter Buckroyd , Pamela Bickley , Ian Brinton , Stephen Siddall

• ISBN13: 9780521787918
• ISBN10: 0521787912
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Satire is a new title in the Cambridge Contexts in Literature series for advanced level students of English Literature. Each title in the series has the quality, content and level endorsed by the OCR examination board. However, the texts provide the background and focus suitable for any examination board at advanced level. The series explores the contextual study of texts by concentrating on key periods, topics and comparisons in literature. Each book adopts an interactive approach and provides the background for understanding the significance of literary, historical and social contexts. Students are encouraged to investigate different interpretations that may be applied to literary texts by different readers, through a variety of activities and questions, the use of study aids, such as chronologies and glossaries, and the inclusion of anthology sections to exemplify issues.

Table of Contents

Time line	6	(2)
Introduction	8	(3)
Approaching the subject	11	(8)
What is satire?	11	(2)
Satire in English literature	13	(2)
Satire as a literary genre	15	(1)
Standing the test of time	16	(1)
The language of satire	16	(1)
Understanding satire in different contexts	17	(1)
Assignments	18	(1)
Approaching the texts	19	(12)
What does `context' mean in relation to a text?	19	(1)
Combining knowledge of contexts with close reading	19	(2)
Contexts as keys	21	(4)
Linking contexts, subject and form in satirical texts	25	(2)
Recognising writers' attitudes to their subject matter	27	(3)
Assignments	30	(1)
Texts and extracts	31	(67)
Geoffrey Chaucer	31	(4)
from The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue	33	(2)
John Skelton	35	(3)
from Colin Clout	37	(1)
Ben Jonson	38	(3)
from The Alchemist	39	(2)
John Dryden	41	(3)
from Absalom and Achitophel	43	(1)
William Congreve	44	(2)
from The Way of the World	45	(1)
Jonathan Swift	46	(8)
`A Meditation upon a Broomstick'	49	(1)
from Gulliver's Travels	50	(3)
from A Modest Proposal	53	(1)
Alexander Pope	54	(6)
from The Rape of the Lock	57	(1)
from Moral Essays `Epistle 4: On the Use of Riches'	58	(1)
from `Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot'	59	(1)
William Hogarth	60	(2)
Marriage A-la-Mode `The Countess's Morning Levee'	61	(1)
Jane Austen	62	(4)
from Northanger Abbey	63	(3)
Lord Byron	66	(4)
from Don Juan	69	(1)
Charles Dickens	70	(5)
from Bleak House	72	(3)
Arthur Hugh Clough	75	(3)
`The Latest Decalogue'	77	(1)
Mark Twain	78	(6)
from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	80	(4)
E.E. Cummings	84	(2)
`next to of course god america i'	85	(1)
`a salesman is an it that stinks Excuse'	85	(1)
`ygUDuh'	86	(1)
Evelyn Waugh	86	(3)
from Decline and Fall	88	(1)
Joseph Heller	89	(3)
from Catch-22	91	(1)
Carol Ann Duffy	92	(3)
`Poet for Our Times'	93	(1)
`Making Money'	94	(1)
Steve Bell	95	(3)
`Righty Ho!'	96	(2)
Critical approaches	98	(13)
What does the word `reading' mean?	98	(1)
The writer and the text	98	(1)
The reader and the text	98	(2)
Critical approaches in the 20th century	100	(2)
Critical approaches to some key satirical texts	102	(8)
Assignments	110	(1)
How to write about satirical texts	111	(7)
`The profitable discussion of literature'	111	(1)
Developing your own critical reading and writing	111	(3)
Assignments	114	(4)
Resources	118	(7)
Satire `trails'	118	(2)
Further reading	120	(2)
Glossary	122	(3)
Index	125