What is Satire:
Satire is a literary genre that is characterized by ridiculing a character and their actions as a way of highlighting their inconsistencies and expressing indignation and criticism. By extension, today we also talk about satire in non-literary or non-narrative discourses such as the graphic arts.
The word is in turn related to the Latin term saturateswhich means ‘plate full of fruits’, and the Greek term satyr, the name given to a type of mythical male figure characterized by having goat-like features and an exacerbated sexual appetite. In both cases, these words come from the same root of saturated and satisfied.
Satire can have several purposes, such as moralizing about the excesses of human vices, in which case it involves a degree of social criticism, or simply entertaining. However, in any case it is usually a provocative genre.
Satire uses resources such as exaggeration or hyperbole, rigorous and detailed examination of the object it intends to ridicule, comparison of opposite terms or juxtaposition, and parody. It can also use elements such as irony or farce.
This literary genre appears for the first time in Ancient Greece, in the so-called iambic poetry. It was one of the favorite resources of the writer Aristophanes in his parody comedies. However, it is considered a particularly representative genre of Roman culture, where it had extensive development in writers such as Horace and Juvenal.
See also Literary Figures.