Political satire: defining the genre, examples

A complex, multifaceted genre, found in many forms of art, is a political satire. To use it professionally means to have a broad outlook, a thorough reading, a knowledge of political science, to take constructive criticism, to master the art of eloquence in perfection and to seriously approach this genre. He does not tolerate a deliberately subjective view, with his help it is easy to touch other people's feelings, insult, humiliate.

What is satire?

Satire is a genre of literature and art that represents comic or poetic exposures of negative phenomena in life and society through irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, allegory, parody and grotesque. The essence of satire is to use artistic techniques and literary means to achieve the annihilating criticism of absurdities, contradictions and vices. Often in satire use is excessive exaggeration. The genre of satire is many centuries old, and in every epoch it was used to reveal negative social and political events. Satire is always aimed at people and phenomena.

Satirical works can be moral, political, religious. Criticism in satire is conducted from the point of view of an inapplicable ideal. In ancient times, the satirical was a mixture of poetry and prose, later in Rome the genre gained independence. It used dances, songs, poetry. Samples of art of satire were created by Juvenal and Horace. With the help of the genre, the vicious phenomena of life are ridiculed. In the literature there are whole works of satirical, individual episodes, situations or images. With political satire one should be cautious, because this genre can be limited by censorship.

Political Satire

The genre of political satire has always been popular. Despite the fact that he refers to literature, the satirical finds expression in the executive and visual arts. In the political satire individual and social imperfections, extravagances, abuse of power, negative actions of politicians by means of irony, burlesque and other methods are bare. The genre of political satire is designed not only to confuse the audience, but also to attack the objectionable reality. This is the main goal, which is achieved through humor.

Literary tricks, such as sarcasm, irony, contrast, help to achieve a certain result. The founders of the genre political satire were Lucilius, Ennius, Horace, Aristophanes. It must contain notes of soft humor, which is intended to smooth criticism at a specific address. Otherwise, satire looks like a sermon, a dry report or a lecture.

The meaning of satire

Political satire arose thanks to the literature of Ancient Rome. It includes poetic and lyrical works of varying volume and meaning. In them the reader finds indignant, condemning in different degrees negations - images of specific individuals, groups, phenomena. Satire - the responsible artistic genre of a free word - must be distinguished from lampoon and pamphlet.

The artistic value of political satire and its meaning lie in the social and moral content, lyrical uplift, the height of the ideal of a satirist. The lyrical subjective color of the satirical work deprives the genre of artistic objectivity, therefore political satire has a character of fleetingness.

Famous satirists

There is a political satire in all forms of art - this is its main difference from a purely literary genre. She meets in the theater, literature, movies, journalism. Previously satire flourished in Greece, Arab countries, Persia, medieval Europe, America, Victorian England. It was widely used as a method of exposing in the twentieth century, during the existence of the USSR and, of course, in modern times.

Famous Soviet satirists I. Ilf and E. Petrov wrote the novel "12 Chairs", which uses humor and literary techniques to ridicule the newly formed Soviet society. Political satire was dealt with: V. Mayakovsky, Yu. Olesha, D. Harms, M. Bulgakov, S. Marshak. Many Soviet satirists were repressed and censored for using this genre.

During the "thaw" there are satirical films, telecasts, which openly and humor denigrate power. Modern satirists are A. Raikin, M. Zhvanetsky, G. Khazanov, S. Altov, A. Arkanov, L. Izmailov, M. Zadornov. Today, the genre of political satire in Russia does not reach the popular, large-scale level that was in Soviet times.

Popular quotes and aphorisms

The most interesting and memorable was the political satire (quotations, utterances, aphorisms) during the USSR. It was from there that stunning comedic films, poems, prose, denouncing disagreeable phenomena of time. During the reign of Brezhnev, there were many anecdotes about him and his policies. Everyone knows that Leonid Ilyich loved medals and medals, which he himself awarded, sometimes undeservedly. That is why the following anecdote appeared: "An earthquake occurred in Moscow. This happened because Brezhnev's jacket with medals fell from the chair. "

In the 21st century, political satire moved from literature to art. Today caricature pictures can often be found in social and political newspapers, major Russian and foreign publications.