Satire is a sharp manifestation of the comic when laughter becomes a weapon in the fight against various human vices. Since ancient times, satirical writers have played a special role in society, they were called accusers and truth-seekers. Through the allegorical and ambiguity of their works, they tried to talk about what was forbidden to bring to people and what was sometimes punishable by law.
Short story
The genre has its origins in ancient Rome. It was then that an understanding of what the role of a satirical writer in society was born. The first authors of a special form of the literary word — Aristophanes, Menander, Lutsily, and others — created poems of small volume in which they ridiculed the politics of a ruler, the life of the nobility, and other social facts.
The social role of the satirical writer began to take shape in the Middle Ages, when the classics of humor - Giovanni Boccaccio, Francois Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes - worked in Europe. The first accusers of church stagnation, feudalism and romantic views significantly influenced the minds of a little enlightened Europe. They made us see, evaluate and fight the evils of the century.
Feature of the genre
Satire deliberately distorts reality, in a special way reproduces reality, where all the characters and events are conditional images that reflect the vices and life of individuals or strata of the population. A distinctive feature of this genre is a sharply negative assessment of what is happening. The main weapon of satire is grotesque and hyperbole, ridicule and conviction is built by introducing into the text an implausible or greatly exaggerated phenomenon.
Often, satire becomes very subjective, because often satirical writers themselves are sharply criticized. All of them can be called in one word - enlighteners, through ridicule of social shortcomings, people learned to look deep into problems, see imperfection and, as a result, look for new guidelines. This is the essence of satire - the assertion of high moral ideals, truth, love, honesty and freedom.
The origins of satire in Russia
Back in the 19th century, A. S. Pushkin deduced the formula that was true for all our people - "a poet in Russia is more than a poet." Until recently, it was literature that shaped the identity and civic position of Russian people. And a special role here belonged to satirical writers.
In Russia, sharp accusatory humor originated in the Middle Ages, but then it still wandered among the people in the form of fairy tales and jokes and was transmitted orally. The authors did not call themselves, preferring anonymity, but the people walked for a very long time and “The Parable of the Hog”, “The Virgin’s Walking in agony”, “The Legend of Ersh Ershovich” and others. The influence of these stories was very great, because they showed the truth of life and allowed people to see a different point of view of the world, different from the church.
The first professional satirical writers appeared in the 18th century. A.P. Sumarokov, A.D. Kantemir created works in the image and style of ancient Greek authors. Truly Russian satire began its ascent with the fables of I. A. Krylov and the play by D. I. Fonvizin “Undergrowth”. The last work literally blew up Russian society, until that moment no one had tried so sharply to ridicule representatives of the nobility. The popularity of this genre is becoming extraordinary, dozens of weekly magazines appear, on the pages of which pamphlets, fables, comedies, epigrams, revealing this or that side of reality, are printed.
19th century satirists
Since the beginning of the golden age of Russian literature, the satire has received a new development. Laughter is becoming a truly formidable weapon, aimed not only at the vices of individuals or classes of society, but at the state and the emperor. The feuilleton genre predominates, but the comedy also gets a special sound. The play by Nikolai V. Gogol, The Inspector General, gained immense popularity among the people and furious indignation among the authorities.
Satirical writers of the XIX century were forced to constantly be under the close supervision of the country's leadership. The emperor and his ministers felt the power of laughter and the way people trusted the authors, because they were afraid of them, arrested, exiled and fixed constant obstacles in literary activity.
And as time has shown, this fear was not groundless, satire and other areas of literature for several decades formed the consciousness of Russian people, showed them the real state of affairs and called for a struggle for another life. What was the work of Nekrasov, "Who lives in Russia well," he is still called a direct call for revolution.
Saltykov-Shchedrin
A huge role in the formation and formation of this genre in our country was played by the satirist writer Saltykov-Shchedrin. Critics called his work a chronology of the events of the Russian Empire of the 19th century. All the most important reforms and transformations in the state are reflected in his works. The writer observed the shredding of people and morals in the higher structures of power, the dominance of corruption and nepotism, which could not but cause protest and indignation in an intelligent person.
Satire in the books of Saltykov-Shchedrin acquired especially cruel, punishing significance. The images of two stupid generals or an empty-headed governor have become part of Russian culture, relevant even now, after 200 years.
20th Century Satire
The new century has brought new, unusual artistic and moral ideals. In our country, the political structure first broke, then the social and literary ones. Satirical writers of the country of soviets created censorship and fear for their lives under harsh conditions. In the first half of the century, free humorous magazines still operated, but gradually they became predictable in topics and exposed mainly bourgeois ideals of life.
This period is associated with the appearance of the satirical works of I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”. The new and old world was brightly reflected in the images of fraudster Ostap Bender and former nobleman Ippolit Vorobyaninov. If these novels were written a little later, they would hardly have seen the light of day, the pressure on free creativity became so strong. A vivid example of this is M. Bulgakov, censorship haunted him all his life, and one of his main creations - “Dog Heart” - was released only after the death of the author.
New time
Modern reality establishes completely different laws for the formation of humor. First of all, the way of presenting information has changed; paper is now not the best way to tell about your vision of the world. Now communication with people happens on TV or directly at concerts. And the format of the arbitrariness itself has become more capacious, concrete and targeted.
But the role of the satirical writer in society has remained the same - to ridicule the vices of society and proclaim true ideals. Today there is another problem - the amount of information and texts in this direction is huge, they write and speak whoever and not always at a high level. Therefore, it is not so easy to find truly valuable observation among this garbage worthy to be called a satire.
conclusions
Humanity will never be perfect, vices, evil or envy will not disappear. This is the choice of each person along which path he should go through life. But this choice is often formed under the influence of external factors: examples of parents, negative influence of friends, improper upbringing, etc. Not everyone can see and notice negative inclinations, and in this case it is simply necessary to meet a certain “mirror” that reflects would have separate traits of thoughts and behavior.
This is the role of the satirical writer, his work allows you to see yourself in a distorted form. Nothing whips so much in conscience and vanity as laughter, sharp criticism makes you think and reconsider familiar ideals.