On the Discourse of Satire: Towards a stylistic model of satirical humour (Linguistic Approaches to Literature)

This book advances a model for the analysis of contemporary satirical humour. Combining a range of theoretical frameworks in stylistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis, Simpson examines both the methods of textual composition and the strategies of interpretation for satire. Verbal irony is central to the model, in respect of which Simpson isolates three principal "ironic phases" that shape the uptake of satirical humour. Throughout the book, consistent emphasis is placed on satire's status as a culturally situated discursive practice, while the categories of the model proposed are amply illustrated with textual examples. A notable feature of the book is a chapter on the legal implications of using satirical humour as a weapon of attack in the public domain. A book where Jonathan Swift meets Private Eye magazine, this entertaining and thought-provoking study will interest those working in stylistics, humorology, pragmatics and discourse analysis. It also has relevance for forensic discourse analysis, and for media, literary and cultural studies. On the Discourse of Satire......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC page......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 12 List of figures......Page 14 1.1. Satire as humorous discourse......Page 16 1.2. The model: In brief, and in abstract......Page 22 1.3. About this book......Page 26 2.1. Introduction......Page 30 2.2. Linguistic approaches to humour......Page 31 2.3. The Semantic Script Theory of Humour......Page 44 2.4. The General Theory of Verbal Humour and beyond......Page 52 2.5. Review and conclusions......Page 59 3.1. Introduction......Page 62 3.2. Literary-critical approaches to satirical humour......Page 63 3.3. Problems and issues in literary-critical approaches......Page 72 3.4. Summary and extension......Page 78 4.1. Introduction......Page 84 4.2. Satire as a discursive practice......Page 87 4.3. Satire as irony within irony......Page 105 4.4. Satire, irony, discourse: Applying the model of analysis......Page 112 4.5. Summary and conclusions......Page 123 5.1. Introduction......Page 126 5.2. Theoretical preliminaries: Satire, parody and irony......Page 128 5.3. Metonymic and metaphoric satirical method......Page 140 5.4. Conclusions......Page 164 6.1. Introduction......Page 168 6.2. A model for satirical uptake: Habermas and ``universal pragmatics''......Page 173 6.3. Validity claims and satirical uptake......Page 180 6.4. Summary......Page 200 7.1. Introduction......Page 202 7.2. Developing a case study: Alan Clark vs. the Evening Standard......Page 203 7.3. Analysis, overview and commentary......Page 209 7.4. Extension and summary......Page 220 8.1. Overview......Page 226 8.2. Extension......Page 229 8.3. Development......Page 233 References......Page 236 Name index......Page 248 Subject index......Page 252 "This book advances a model for the analysis of contemporary satirical humour. Combining a range of theoretical frameworks in stylistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis, Simpson examines both the methods of textual composition and the strategies of interpretation for satire. Verbal irony is central to the model, in respect of which Simpson isolates three principal "ironic phases" that shape the uptake of satirical humour. Throughout the book, consistent emphasis is placed on satire's status as a culturally situated discursive practice, while the categories of the model proposed are amply illustrated with textual examples. A notable feature of the book is a chapter on the legal implications of using satirical humour as a weapon of attack in the public domain."--BOOK JACKET