THE Satire represents a literary style in verse or prose used to criticize political institutions, morals, habits and customs.
Main features
The satire's main characteristic is a strong charge of irony and sarcasm. Although it is not always aimed at inducing laughter, this literary style is generally close to comedy.
It is, therefore, a social criticism made of people and customs in a caricatured way. For this reason, many satires target politicians, artists and people of social relevance.
Thus, it is used as an instrument to expose ideas and also as a lyrical tool. In this sense, satire is nothing more than poetry used to ridicule customs, public figures, institutions, etc.
It is worth noting that it is not always literary, being also used in cinema, music and television.
Also as a mark of satire is the denunciation of matters that would supposedly be treated seriously.
However, we must remember that not all satire is destructive, although it has a strong action in attack and demoralization.
She comically applies the text to the characters, highlighting moral and character defects and shortcomings. That's how he uses humor to censor harmful practices.
It is common for satire to present dialogues with a mixture of styles. The use of resources ranging from backbiting to obscenity are notorious when they represent types that are almost deformed and full of vices.
satirical techniques
Satire uses techniques such as "reduction or decrease" and "inflation or increase".
In the reduction, for example, a chancellor might be called a “girl”; and in inflation, a “crater” hole.
Thus, we can note that this literary style often resorts to the use of elements such as hyperbole and juxtaposition.
Origin and main representatives
Most authors differ on the origin of satire. The intention of social criticism appears even in drawings from prehistory.
It was literature, however, that popularized the style from comedy, as early as the fifth century, in Athens. Among the most prominent authors is the Greek Epicarmo, whose comic text mocked the intellectuals of his time.
The apogee, however, occurred in Rome, where it was perfected in the writings of Gaius Lucilius, with his moral poetry and full of philosophy.
In the Middle Ages, the already consolidated genre is marked by troubadour songs of derision and cursing. These were produced at the end of the 12th century until the middle of the 14th century by the troubadours of Galicia and Portugal.
Even in the Middle Ages, French monks and bourgeois are satirized by the French writer François Rabelais.
Excellence comes through the work of Italian Giovanni Boccaccio and earns the mark of Erasmus of Rotterdam.
The work deserves to be highlighted praise of madness (1509), which presents a strong and intense satire on religious dogmas.
Satire in Brazilian Literature
Among the authors who used the satirical genre in Brazil, the Bahian Gregory of Matos Guerra is certainly the most prominent.
The author, who was born in 1636, never published anything during his lifetime. Everything was handwritten because at the time he lived, the press and the university were prohibited. Book publishing was restricted to Lisbon or Coimbra.
The author lived most of his life in Portugal, but it was in Bahia that his satirical gifts were highlighted.
In satirical poetry, Matos revealed his marks of prejudice receiving the nickname of “Mouth of Hell”.
As a priest, he refused to wear the cassock and obey orders from above. His baroque poetry, however, also had religious and lyrical contours.
Examples of satirical poetry
Check below two examples of Gregório de Matos' satirical poetry:
Epigram
What is missing in this city... Truth.
What more for your dishonor... Honor.
There's more to be done... Shame.
The demo to live exposes itself,
As much as fame exalts it,
In a city where
Truth, honor, shame.
Who put her in this rocroce... Business.
Who causes such perdition... Ambition.
And in the midst of this madness... Usury.
remarkable misadventure
From a foolish and unsound people,
who doesn't know that he lost
Business, ambition, usury.
What are your sweet objects... Black.
There are other more massive goods... Mixed races.
Which of these are you most grateful... Mulattoes.
I give the demo the fools,
I give Demo the asnal people,
What an estimation of capital,
Blacks, mestizos, mulattos.
Who makes the petty tapers... Bailiffs.
Who makes the late flours... Guards.
Who has them in the rooms... Sergeants.
The candles come by the hundreds,
And the land is starving,
because they go through them
Bailiffs, guards, sergeants.
And what justice protects it... Bastard.
It's free distributed... Sold.
What's wrong, that frightens everyone... Unfair.
God help us, what it costs
What El-Rei gives us for free.
that justice walks in the square
Bastard, sold, unfair.
Which goes for the clergy... Simony.
And by the members of the Church... Envy.
I took care what more was put to him... Nail
Seasoned snail,
Anyway, that in the Holy See
What is most practiced is
Simonia, envy and nail.
And in the friars there are lameness... Nuns.
In which they occupy the evenings... Sermons.
They don't engage in disputes... Whores.
with dissolute words
I conclude myself actually,
That a friar's all reads
They are nuns, sermons and whores.
The sugar is gone... He downloaded.
And the money died out... He went up.
Soon she's already convalescent... He died.
Bahia happened
What happens to a patient:
Fall into bed, and evil grows,
It went down, it went up, it died.
The Chamber doesn't help... Can not.
Because it doesn't have all the power... Do not want.
It's that the Government convinces her... It doesn't win.
Who would think,
What a noble chamber,
Seeing himself miserable and poor,
Can't, doesn't want, doesn't win.
to addictions
I am the one that the past years
I sang on my cursing lyre
Brazil's nastiness, vices and mistakes.
And even though I've disenchanted them quite a bit,
I sing a second time on the same lyre
The same subject in full different.
I already feel it inflames me and inspires me
Talia, what an angel is my guardian
Since Apollo sent him to assist me.
Baiona burns, and everyone burns,
That whoever by profession lacks the truth
The Sunday of truths is never late.
no time except christianity
To the poor pawnbroker of Parnassus
to talk about your freedom
The narration must match the case,
And if maybe the case doesn't equal,
I don't have for a poet what Pegasus is.
What is the use of shutting up someone who shuts up?
Will you never speak what you feel?!
One must always feel what is said.
What man can be so patient,
That, seeing the sad state of Bahia,
Don't cry, don't sigh and don't mourn?
This makes the understated costume:
It speaks in one and another disconcertion,
Condemns robbery, reproves hypocrisy.
The foolish, the ignorant, the inexperienced,
That he doesn't elect the good or the bad,
He passes through everything dazzled and uncertain.
And when he sees maybe in the sweet darkness
Praised for good, and for evil reproached,
It muzzles everything, and nothing approves.
He immediately says, prudent and relaxed:
-So and so is a satirist, he's crazy,
With a bad tongue, with a mad heart.
Foolish, if you understand nothing or little,
Like mocking with laughter and din
Muses, what do I look forward to having when I invoke them?
If you knew how to speak, you would also speak,
You would also satirize, if you knew,
And if you were a poet, you would poetize.
The ignorance of men of these ages
Doubtful makes some others prudent,
That muteness canonizes wild beasts.
There are good ones, because you can't be insolent,
Others there are fearful,
They don't bite others - because they don't have teeth.
How many are there that the roofs have glass,
and stop throwing your stone,
Of your same tile afraid?
One nature has been given to us;
God did not create diverse naturals;
Only one Adam created, and this one from nothing.
We are all bad, we are all evil,
Only vice and virtue distinguish them,
That some are diners, others are adverse.
Whoever has it bigger than I could have,
This one just blames me, this one notices me,
Shut up, chitom, and be healthy.
Read more about the Literary Genres.
