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Article published In: Cognitive Perspectives on Genre
Edited by Carla Vergaro
[Pragmatics & Cognition 25:3] 2018
► pp. 459–482

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Satire as a genre

 | University of Pisa
Published online: 10 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.18023.ber
Abstract
Many scholars have claimed that satire is a genre. At the same time, however, it is also widely acknowledged that satire has changed over the centuries, that it has taken various forms and that it still appears in a variety of other genres. Far from being a drawback in identifying satire as a genre, I will claim that variability is a natural property of genres if the latter are conceived of as dynamic cognitive categories that emerge out of a complex interplay of heterogeneous factors which cluster differently under the effect of different contextual and cotextual attractors. I will assume that, in satire, these factors include a range of linguistic and rhetorical devices which interact in different ways to dynamically bring about specifically intended effects. I will further claim that understanding satire is a context-sensitive complex process which implies setting up and maintaining multiple mental representations, and drawing pragmatic inferences.
Article outline
  • 1.The complexities of satire
  • 2.The complexities of genre
    • 2.1Genres and text types: The text linguistics approach
    • 2.2Genres and pragmatic competence
    • 2.3Genres as cognitive constructs
  • 3.The big family of satire
    • 3.1Keeping satire distinct from parody
      • 3.1.1Satirical parody
  • 4.Genres as emergent patterns
    • 4.1Languages as complex systems
    • 4.2Satirical news or news satire?
      • 4.2.1“Poverty-stricken Africans receive desperately needed bibles”
      • 4.2.2Inferences
      • 4.2.3Attractors
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (48)
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