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Terms and People to Know Irony: A subtly humorous perception of inconsistency, in which an apparently straightforward statement or event is undermined by its context so as to give it a very different significance. In various forms, irony appears in many kinds of literature, from the tragedy of Sophocles to the novels of Jane Austen and Henry James , but is especially important in satire , as in Voltaire and Swift. At its simplest, in verbal irony , it involves a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant, as in its crude form, sarcasm; for the figures of speech exploiting this discrepancy, see antiphrasis, litotes, meiosis . The more sustained structural irony in literature involves the use of a naïve or deluded hero or unreliable narrator , whose view of the world differs widely from the true circumstances recognized by the author and readers; literary irony thus flatters its readers' intelligence at the expense of a character (or fictional narrator). A similar sense of detached superiority is achieved by dramatic irony , in which the audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations, and thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the character's own statements; in tragedies, this is called tragic irony . The term cosmic irony is sometimes used to denote a view of people as the dupes of a cruelly mocking Fate, as in the novels of Thomas Hardy . A writer whose works are characterized by an ironic tone may be called an ironist . For a fuller account, consult Claire Colebrook , Irony ( 2003 ). "irony." The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Ed. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Web. 27 January 2010. Satire: A mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn. Satire is often an incidental element in literary works that may not be wholly satirical, especially in comedy . Its tone may vary from tolerant amusement, as in the verse satires of the Roman poet Horace , to bitter indignation, as in the verse of Juvenal and the prose of Jonathan Swift (see juvenalian ). Various forms of literature may be satirical, from the plays of Ben Jonson or of Molière and the poetry of Chaucer or Byron to the prose writings of Rabelais and Voltaire . The models of Roman satire , especially the verse satires of Horace and Juvenal, inspired some important imitations by Boileau , Pope , and Johnson in the greatest period of satire --the 17th and 18th centuries--when writers could appeal to a shared sense of normal conduct from which vice and folly were seen to stray. In this classical tradition, an important form is 'formal' or 'direct' satire , in which the writer directly addresses the reader (or recipient of a verse letter) with satiric comment. The alternative form of 'indirect' satire usually found in plays and novels allows us to draw our own conclusions from the actions of the characters, as for example in the novels of Evelyn Waugh or Chinua Achebe . See also lampoon . For a range of introductory accounts, consult Ruben Quintero (ed.), A Companion to Satire ( 2006 ). Life Of his last 33 years alive, only 7 were spent in America . Times Overview: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them . Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 1: Ancient Times to the American and French Revolutions (Prehistory-1790s) . Detroit: Gale, 1997. From Literature Resource Center. Change from Puritans Jefferson 's letter to Pierre S. Du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816. "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day" (qtd. in Meyers, Calweti, Kern 273) Definition of the Enlightenment André Morellet: "It is this ardor for knowledge, this activity of mind which does not wish to leave an effect without seeking the cause, a phenomenon without explanation, an assertion without proof, an objection without a reply, an error without combating it, an evil without seeking the remedy, a possible good without seeking to obtain it; it is this general movement of minds which has marked the eighteenth century and which will constitute its glory forever" (qtd. in Aldridge).
What are "errata" to Franklin ? -- mistakes. What would Rowlandson have called these? Why did he choose that word? Benjamin Franklin "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America " [1784]
from The Autobiography (538) [published in 1818-1868]
Religion
His character/beliefs/connection to other ideas of the period How is "Sinners in the hand of an Angry God" similar to Rev. Whitefield's ( Franklin 607)?
Politics/government
Style
Power of the pen and oratory
Proto-Feminism?
Reform
Link to Franklin graphic essay by Maria Kalman "Quintessentially a work of the eighteenth century, the memoirs reflect the American need to define its national in terms of its urban character. While physical nature plays only a minor role in the book, the Autobiography may be the fullest American expression of urban pastorialism before 1820 because it validates the ideal in a uniquely significant way. Instead of teeming gardens fused with urban forms, the memoirs present a hero and a milieu which unite rural and urban values thorough a social pattern of individual and communal fulfillment" (Machor 110) Shuffleton, Frank "American Enlightenment." Teaching the Literatures of Early America . Ed. Carla Mulford. New York : MLA, 1999. 155-169. Print. "we need to conceptualize the Enlightenment so as to reaffirm what Horkheimer and Adorno characterizes as 'the dialectical link between enlightenment and domination, and the dual relationship of progress to cruelty and liberation" (Shuffleton 156) "The Enlightenment dialectic between domination and emancipation, knowledge and freedom, perhaps most clearly reveals itself in American writers through three strategies: first, the often difficult and conflicted move to value the humanity, the subjectivity, of those who are 'other' than the assumed norm of European males, particularly women, Native Americans, and African Americans; second, the creation of the so-called public sphere, in which the 'critical reasoning of private persons on political issues' ushered in new forms of life on every level (Habermas 29); finally, the critique of reason itself, the process of self-examination that made the Enlightenment the first scene of restless modernity" (Shuffleton 157) North American Review 1818 (Conservative magazine representing the voice of old New England ) "'The groundwork of his character, during this period, was bad; and the moral qualities, which contributed to his rise, were of a worldly and very profitable kind' (qtd. in Wood 5). "No one has stood for that promise of getting ahead better than Franklin . Schools in the nineteenth century began using his Autobiography to teach moral lessons to students. Many people seemed to know his writings as well as they knew the Bible. It is not surprising that the book Davy Crockett had with him when he died at the Alamo was not the Bible but Franklin 's Autobiography (Wood 3) "Indeed, one might more easily describe him as the least American and the most European of the nation's early leaders. He was undoubtedly the most cosmopolitan and the most urbane of that group of leaders who brought about the Revolution. He hobnobbed with lords and aristocrats in Britain and the rest of Europe [. . . .] No other American, even Jefferson, knew more Europeans or was more celebrated abroad in more countries than Franklin " (Wood 9) "Only with the publication of his Autobiography in 1794 did the idea of Franklin as the folksy embodiment of the self-made business man and the creator of the American dream begin to gather power[. . .]" (Wood 13)© 2009 David Bordelon
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