Course Schedule
Lehrveranstaltungen
Satire (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan
Termin:
wöchentlich | Dienstag | 16:15 - 17:45 | 04.04.2022 - 08.07.2022 | C 5.311 Seminarraum
Inhalt: Contemporary commentators have remarked that satire, in the age of Trump is dead, as “telling it straight is already crazy”. We will test the validity of this hypothesis at the end of our seminar after engaging with theories of satire and its various medial forms. Satire is a powerful rhetorical device which holds up to ridicule human vices, follies, and shortcomings, making them seem absurd, sometimes even hilarious, often with the aim of wider social or political criticism. Its entertainment factor means it can reach a wide audience. It is a powerful tool of dissent as it usually works by implication rather than being explicit. It genealogy goes back to the ancient Greeks, today it is found in almost every medial form. In this seminar we will look at the origin and development of satire, identifiying and analysing techniques and strategies in a wide range of media and forms such as historical and contemporary narrative texts (Swift, David Eggers: The Circle; Paul Beatty: The Sellout), songs (Tom Lehrer), magazines (Mad), picturebooks (David Macaulay’s Baa), film (Sacha Baron Cohen: Borat), operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan), political cartoons, advertising, tv-shows (e.g. The Colbert Report, Magazin Royale), cartoons (South Bank), etc. Students are welcome to suggest other primary material they would like to examine in the seminar.