The Satirist

Satire takes as its subject the absurdity of human beings, their societies, and the institutions they create. For centuries, satirists themselves, scholars, critics, and psychologists have speculated about the satirist’s reasons for writing, temperament, and place in society. The conclusions they have reached are sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary, sometimes outlandish. In The Satirist, Feinberg brings together the major theories about the satirist, to provide in one book a summary of the problems that specialists have examined intensively in numerous books and articles. Brian A. Connery’s introduction provides an overview of Feinberg’s career and situates the volume in the intellectual currents in which it was written.

Leonard Feinberg is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Iowa State University