The growth and development of American satire: 1630-1895

Abstract

The American predilection for ‘soft satire’ is well known. From Benjamin Franklin onwards American satirists have demonstrated a tolerance for human frailty unthinkable in the satires of the great Augustans. This thesis traces the growth and development of American satire from its beginnings in the Colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. The period encompasses both a change in the understanding of the word ‘satire’, and therefore the type of satire written, and a change in world view which inevitably influenced content. The approach is chronological and historical and follows the growth of American culture as it is manifested in the satires in terms of content, form and language. Early American satires, infused with religious language, imagery, and modes of thought, took their structure from the optimistic American Jeremiad, and asserted the possibility of an ‘ideal America’. This influenced later secular satires which asserted an ‘ideal America’ using a providential frame, forging a link between sacred and secular values. During the course of the American Revolution satirists incorporated essentially secular and humanistic values within the providential frame and continued to assert the possibility of an ‘ideal America’. The effect of the providential frame was twofold. It ensured, in God’s time, an eventual favourable outcome rendering the satires optimistic and therefore corrective rather than destructive. Secondly it allowed for the suppression of realistic detail which could threaten the stability of what was in effect a realistic ideal, an ‘ideal America’. As American millenialism gave way to the humanistic ideals of the enlightenment in American satire the essentially religious view of an ‘ideal America’ gave way to a humane and secular view. The providential frame was dropped and optimism came to depend upon human will. This rendered the value system of the satires unstable. Satire underwent a crisis of authority and Jacksonian democracy was accompanied by works in which the gross materialism of the mob depicted in the attack undermined the democratic ideals the satires asserted. This was accompanied by an increasing Americanization of language, character and content in satirical works which usurped the satiric persona of an authoritative ‘man of letters’ in favour, in some cases, of the man of no letters. The logical dilemma created by notions of a realistic ideal is apparent in satires written immediately before and after the Civil War, so that these satires demonstrate a tendency toward the ‘tragical satire’ seen in the Jacobean period. However, Puritan influence manifested itself elsewhere in American satire in the form of the exemplary figure which, typically journeys like Franklin, along the path to improvement. These figures, like the Providential frame, serve to forge a link between the ideal and therefore absolute, and the real. The figures travel a realistic rather than ideological landscape and in early satires invariably have their share of human faults. They are characterized by an ability to cling to the ideal despite all evidence to the contrary, or by an ability to learn moral and, in the post-Revolutionary satires, essentially Federalist values, including those of the ‘Men of Letters’ who founded the early Republic. In Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, this figure becomes wholly American. The moral growth of Huck in the course of the novel is well known, as are the realistic aspects of his character, but Huck is also intelligent. He demonstrates a facility with language which in earlier satires characterized the satiric persona. It is suggested that as the American absurd hero develops, that figure absorbs the characteristics of the authoritative satiric persona of the ‘man of letters’, creating satire from within, rather than beyond the text - in effect, a democratic satire.