Literary Satire between Two Cultures

As a weapon for political resistance or a tool for social reform, literary satire is used in different cultures. However, satire is still marginalized in linguistic studies of humour. This book attempts to fill in part of this gap. Taking a pragmastylistic approach, it compares two culturally different satirical novels dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict. It is divided into six chapters. The first one is introductory: it builds the theoretical base of the study. The following two chapters analyze the use of satire in two culturally different novels. The fourth chapter provides an analytical comparison of the use of satire in the two novels. The fifth one focuses on the role of the reader and why satire is sometimes misunderstood. Finally, the sixth chapter presents the conclusion and suggestions for further studies. The study should help shed some light on the stylistic devices and techniques used in producing satire and the pragmatic conditions necessary for understanding it, and should be especially useful to scholars of stylistics, pragmatics, and literary studies.