Smith, Adam James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3938-4836 (2024) “Our satirists prove such very slaughter-men”: The Character of the Satirist in Eighteenth-Century Print. In: Davies-Shuck, Montana and Buckley, Jennifer, (eds.) Conceptualising Character. Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print . Palgrave

Text 3. AJS Character of the Satirist Version 28.11.docx - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 29 May 2026. Download (81kB)

Abstract

This essay surveys descriptions of the satirist from across the eighteenth century, arguing that attention to the character of the satirist reveals that during this period satire was not only performative but preoccupied with questions of performance. In order to understand the various elements of eighteenth-century satiric performance, the essay demonstrates the applicability of three contemporary models of subjectivity: mask, persona, and character. Though discrete, the different layers of satiric performance were not consistently aligned and often instead playfully rejected internal coherence. Readers were compelled to negotiate layers of mask and character which were purposefully mismatched to produce deliberate, revealing, and entertaining dissonances. The essay then considers in detail two anonymous attempts to prescribe how the ideal satirist should behave, The Satirists: A Satire (1739) and The Satirist: A Poem (1771), arguing that stricter clarification on what was considered permissible satirical behaviour only created additional means by which satirists could frustrate and subvert readers expectations to further satirical effect. Ultimately, this essay suggests that satirical utterances printed throughout the eighteenth century necessarily and intrinsically demanded readers to engage with and navigate complex and slippery questions of character.

Item Type:	Book Section
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.1007/978-3-031-48513-8_4
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > DA498-503 1714-1760 D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > DA505-522 George III, 1760-1820 P Language and Literature > PR English literature
School/Department:	School of Humanities
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/8310

University Staff: Request a correction | RaY Editors: Update this record