Victorian Satire
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Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders
do generally discover everybody’s face but
their own.
--Swift, 1704
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The construction and performance of satire in the Victorian
age is the focus of this seminar which will draw from
a variety of genres. Beginning with its origin in the
political and social satire of the Romantic period,
satire will be shown in action, transforming and displacing
the norm. Drawing as much from 19th century visual culture
– satirical prints, cartoons, and pantomimes –
as well as print culture, typography itself functioning
as an expressive form of satiric representation, the
course will consider how satire exploits the instability
and potential chaos of society through the maintenance
of its subversive potential. After identifying “the
scene of satire,” we will then challenge a set
of established critical distinctions beginning with
that between comedy and satire. Poetry, prose, fiction,
drama and even comic opera will provide the core material
for our diagnosis of Victorian satire, a term as contradictory
as it is useful. Related configurations such as wit,
parody, humor, burlesque, nonsense, caricature and jokes
will provide further material for discussion.
Primary Reading:
- The Black Dwarf, ed. Thomas Wooler
- Shelley, “The Mask of Anarchy”
- Peacock, Thomas Love. Nightmare Abbey; Headlong
Hall
- Meredith, “On Comedy”
- Clough, Arthur Hugh. “The Latest Decalogue,”
“Amours de Voyage.”
- Lear, Edward, The Nonsense Books of Edward Lear
- Carroll, Lewis. The Alice Books
- Thackeray, W.M. The Book of Snobs; Vanity
Fair
- Trollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers
- Meredith, George. The Egoist
- Butler, The Way of All Flesh
- Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest;
The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Beerbohm, Max. Zuleika Dobson
Selected Secondary Reading:
- Bakhtin, M. Rabelais and His World. 1968.
- Connery, Brian A & K. Combe, eds. Theorizing
Satire. 1995.
- Henkle, Roger. Comedy and Culture, England 1820-1900.
1980.
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Parody. 1985
- Jones, Steven E. Satire and Romanticism.
2000.
- Kernan, Alvin H. The Cankered Muse, Satire
in the English Renaissance. 1959; Plot of Satire.
1965.
- Martin, Robert Bernard. The Triumph of Wit, A
Study of Victorian Comic Theory. 1974
- Paulson, Ronald. The Fiction of Satire. 1967.
- Petro, Peter. Modern Satire: Four Studies.
1982.
- Segal, Eric. The Death of Comedy. 2001
- Smith, Sydney. “On Wit and Humor,” Elementary
Sketches of Moral Philosophy. 1850.
- Stephen, Leslie. “Humour,” Cornhill
Magazine XXXIII (March 1876) 318- 26.
- Wagner-Lawlor, Jennifer A., ed. The Victorian
Comic Spirit, New Perspectives. 2000.
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