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Satire as the Comic Public Sphere

Postmodern "Truthiness" and Civic Engagement

ISBN-13: 9780271089867
Publisher: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
By James E. Caron
Price: AUD $238.00
Stock: 1 in stock
Availability: Order will be despatched as soon as possible.
Local release date: 02/04/2021
Format: Hardback (229.00mm X 152.00mm) 280 pages Weight: 630g
Categories: Parodies & spoofs [WHP]

Description
Author Biography
Reviews
Google Preview: Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, John Oliver-these comedians are household names whose satirical takes on politics, the news, and current events receive some of the highest ratings on television. In this book, James E. Caron examines satirists such as these through the lenses of political and social philosophy, arriving at a new definition of the comic art form. Tracing the history of modern satire from its roots in the Enlightenment values of rational debate, evidence, facts, accountability, and transparency, Caron identifies a new form of the comedic genre: "truthiness satire." He shows how satirists such as Colbert, Bee, Noah, and Oliver-along with writers like Charles Pierce and Jack Shafer-rely on shared values and on the postmodern aesthetics of irony and affect to create engagement within a comic public sphere. Using case studies of bits, parodies, and routines, Caron reveals a remarkable fact: as news reporting moves away from evidence and toward a discursive space in which alternative facts exist, satire is increasingly employed as a way to critique these stories and to generate reflection, thought, and even action in the body politic. With rigor, humor, and insight, Caron shows that truthiness satire pushes back against fake news and biased reporting and that the satirist today is at heart a citizen, albeit a seemingly silly one. This book will appeal to anyone interested in and concerned about public discourse in the current era, especially researchers in media studies, communication studies, political science, and literary and cultural studies.; James E. Caron is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He is the author of Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter and coeditor of Refocusing Chaplin: A Screen Icon Through Critical Lenses and Sut Lovingood's Nat'ral Born Yarnspinner: Essays on George Washington Harris.; "Any scholar or student interested in the roles of comic and satiric discourse in twenty-first-century culture will benefit from reading this book. In my own engagements with satire, I will turn to this book first as an authoritative sorting-out of where we are and where we are going."-Bruce Michelson, author of Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and the American Self; Google Preview content

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Satire as the Comic Public Sphere

Postmodern "Truthiness" and Civic Engagement