AMS 315 - Satire from Rome to Colbert

Credits: 4

Searing wit and unrelenting mockery employed in perceptive socio-political critique can arouse deep understanding, cheap laughs, or both-maybe neither. Satirical humorists from Petronius and Juvenal, to Swift and Twain, to Stewart and Colbert touch the rawest of nerves to fortify, rectify or undermine societal norms. Through readings, discussions, viewings, composition and performance of satire from antiquity to, literally, present-day America students will investigate social thinking across multiple cultures. Offered Regularly.