Diminution (satire)

This article is about a satirical technique. For other uses, see Diminution (disambiguation).

Diminution is a satirical technique that aims to belittle a subject via description. The term, derived from "diminutive" meaning "small," was defined by critic John M. Bullitt as "speech which tends, either by the force of low or vulgar imagery, or by other suggestion, to depress an object below its usually accepted status." According to Bullitt, diminution can take the form of "ugly or homely images," comparisons to subjects considered to be inferior (with the implication that the thing being compared is inferior as well), focusing on a person's unappealing physical features, or using irony, meiosis, or litotes.^[1]

Bullitt used the term to describe the writing of satirist Jonathan Swift -- for example, the associations of humans with animals Gulliver's Travels and "A Modest Proposal."^[2] The term has since been associated with Flannery O'Connor,^[3] Mark Twain,^[4] Henry Fielding,^[5] and Oliver Goldsmith.^[6]

References

1. Bullitt, John M. (1953). Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire: A Study of Satiric Technique. Harvard University Press.
2. Cook, Virgil Aldwin (1980). Jonathan Swift's Theory of Satire. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
3. Haar, Maria. "The Phenomenon of the Grotesque in Modern Southern Fiction". Retrieved 23 March 2023.
4. Covici, Jr., Pascal (24 October 2017). Sloane, David E. E. (ed.). "From the Old Southwest". Mark Twain's Humor: Critical Essays: 51–84. doi:10.4324/9780203733219-5. ISBN 9781351403160. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
5. Levine, George R. (24 July 2015). Henry Fielding and the Dry Mock: A Study of the Techniques of Irony in His Early Works. De Gruyter. p. 21. ISBN 9783111400396. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
6. Hopkins, Robert Hazen (1969). The True Genius of Oliver Goldsmith. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 155. ISBN 9780801810169. Retrieved 23 March 2023.