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Welcome to the Kilkenny
International Swift Society website. The society aims to promote contemporary
social and political commentary through poetical satire in the spirit
of Jonathan Swift.
NEWS
Article on political satire The Guardian, May 2008
"Seeking
21st century poetic satire. Never was there an age riper for poisonous
pens. Please sharpen yours"
Posted by
Billy Mills Friday May 2 2008 15:30 BST
Article questioning satire
in Obama cover of The New Yorker magazine The New York Times
by Lee Siegel, July 20, 2008
We’re
Not Laughing at You, or With You
Contemporary Political
Satire
A great time for political
satire. Below is a taste of what is happening. This resource will be expanded.
If you have suggestions please email to geninfo@swiftsociety.com
Political Satirists
- Authors
- Andrey Kurkov
(Russia) Death and the Penguin, The Harvill Press; New Ed edition,
2002
- Vladamir Sorokin (Russia)Day
of the Oprichnik Alfaguara Argentina 2007
- Gary Shteyngart (Russia-America)
Absurdistan 2006
- Christopher Buckley
(US) Boomsday London : Allison & Busby, 2007. Supreme
Courtship, Twelve Books 2008
- PJ
O'Rourke Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain
the Entire U.S. Government
London : Picador, 1991
- Stephen Colbert I
Am America (And So Can You!) Grand Central, 2007
- Jeffrey Seeman,
Political Science, Livermore CA : Wingspan Press 2007
- George Saunders (US)
In Persuasion Nation 2006, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
2005
Magazines/News/Websites
Cartoonists
TV
- The Daily Show
- The Colbert Report
- Rick Mercer
- The Simpsons
- South Park
Academic Articles
& Books
- The
Transmission of Political Critique after 9/11: “A New Form of
Desperation”?
- Martin Rowson (1998)
'Themes and Threnedies in Political Satire', Political Quarterly,
69,(B) : 28-29
- 'Political
Satire in Modern India' (The Hindu Sunday, Apr 06, 2003)
- Contemporary Political
Satire: Narrative Strategies in the Post-modern Context By M. D. Fletcher
1987 Published by University Press of America
- "To tell the truth,
laughing": contemporary political satire and its effects on public
policy, By Ira Lee Birnbaum, Published by s.n, 1979
- On the Discourse of
Satire: Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humor
By Paul Simpson Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003
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- See Swift's Complete
Works Prose
and Poetry
available for download as ebooks from this site
Epitaph of Swift:
"The body of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology, dean of this
cathedral church, is buried here, where fierce indignation can no more
lacerate his heart. Go, traveler, and imitate, if you can, one who strived
with all his strength to champion liberty"
SPONSORS
We would like to sincerely thank
our sponsors, including the Kilkenny County Council for their support
of the 2007 Swift Satire Poetry Competition.
If any other sponsors would
like to support the competition please contact geninfo@swiftsociety.com
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ON THE FIVE SENSES
All of us in one you'll
find,
Brethren of a wondrous kind;
Yet among us all no brother
Knows one tittle of the other;
We in frequent councils are,
And our marks of things declare,
Where, to us unknown, a clerk
Sits, and takes them in the dark.
He's the register of all
In our ken, both great and small;
By us forms his laws and rules,
He's our master, we his tools;
Yet we can with greatest ease
Turn and wind him where we please.
One of us alone can sleep,
Yet no watch the rest will keep,
But the moment that he closes,
Every brother else reposes.
If wine's brought or victuals drest,
One enjoys them for the rest.
Pierce us all with wounding steel,
One for all of us will feel.
Though ten thousand cannons roar,
A dd to them ten
thousand more,
Yet but one of us is found
Who regards the dreadful sound.
Do what is not fit to tell,
There's but one of us can smell. |
