Genres

Satire

Also Known As Satura The Latin term for the miscellany-verse form the Roman poets (Ennius, Lucilius, Horace, Juvenal) gave the genre its name from.

Citation Formats

General Reference

Literature Atlas. "Satire." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-literature.interactiveatlas.org/genres/satire.

APA Style

Literature Atlas. (n.d.). Satire. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-literature.interactiveatlas.org/genres/satire

BibTeX

@misc{literatureatlas-satire,
  author = {Literature Atlas},
  title = {Satire},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-literature.interactiveatlas.org/genres/satire},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A genre using irony, exaggeration, ridicule or invective to expose and criticize vice, folly, abuses or contemporary institutions, spanning verse, prose and drama. The Roman poets Horace and Juvenal established two enduring registers, the wry and the savage, and the hybrid prose-and-verse Menippean satire, named for the Greek Cynic Menippus and practiced in Petronius' Satyricon and Lucian's dialogues, mixed forms to send up philosophical pretension. Renaissance and Enlightenment satire, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal foremost among English examples and Voltaire's Candide in French, turned the mode against political and religious institutions, and satire persists as a live literary and journalistic mode into the present.

Facts

Place of Origin

Traced to ancient Greece; Aristophanes's Old Comedy is considered the origin of satire as a literary mode. 1

Notable Example

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, which suggests Irish peasants sell their own children as food for the rich as a mock solution to the problem of poverty. 1

Defining Trait

Vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Fable

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature

Maqama

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature

Ottava Rima

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encompasses Form

The Epigram

The Roman epigrammatist Martial used the short, pointed epigram as a primary vehicle for satire.

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Features Author

Miguel de Cervantes

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Sartor Resartus

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Thomas Carlyle

Via the Menippean satire of Sartor Resartus; his main body of work is nonfiction prose.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Sources

1. Satire (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationLead section

Quote, Lead section

Vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws.

View the Source

1. Satire (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia Foundationbody

Quote, body

The origin of satire is considered to be Aristophanes' Old Comedy.

View the Source

1. Satire (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationAge of Enlightenment section

Quote, Age of Enlightenment section

[A Modest Proposal] suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the problem of poverty.

View the Source

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Princeton University Press

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Princeton University PressSatire entry

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.Features Author: Sartor ResartusView the Source

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.Features Author: Thomas CarlyleView the Source

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.Associated With: Ottava Rima, s.v. Ottava rimaView the Source

The Norton Anthology of World Literature