Research Project Satire Research Network

This network will explore the complexity of ethics and aesthetics in satire in order to grasp, explain and mitigate public controversies about satire.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo (2015), satire has become one of the most publicly debated forms of artistic expression in the Western world. Following this, we have witnessed how simplistic interpretations of satirical works based on a reductionist conception of satire as an easily comprehended art form have sparked serious controversies full of anger, violence, and feelings of offence. Traditional satire theory is partly complicit in the prevailing reductionist understanding of satire, but recent satire critics have circumvented this widespread belief by paying due attention to satire as not only a recognisable genre, but also as a certain mode, tone and frame of mind.

This network will explore the inherent tension between artistic expression and moral implications in such an outlook.