Maryam Jaber

Introduction:

Satirical literature is a black comedy that reflects the political and social pains of the citizen and is presented in a satirical form that draws a smile on the face and places a dagger in the heart. This literature includes all types of literary creativity that present their topics with sarcasm. The satirical writer is the one who transforms pain into a smile and sadness into creativity. We must also clarify that satirical literature is not lampooning, whereas lampooning is at the heart of satirical literature; lampooning outside the literary mold is an attack without a al.. while satirical writing can include lampooning...

Satirical writing means rebelling against reality.. and a logical revolution against traditional axioms.. whether political or social ...!! It is the crutch on which the free writer leans.. to straighten a tilt in the depths of his soul. Satirical writing is defined very briefly as: ((reflecting the image of reality with its beauty and ugliness.. but in a different style from ordinary writing)) .... while psychologists define irony as: ((a self-weapon used by the individual to defend his internal front against void and complete madness))

As sarcasm, despite this apparent fullness with mirth, laughter and cheerfulness.. yet it hides rivers of tears behind it.. it is a lightning rod against psychological collapse ))

Some comment ((that satirical writing.. was born with the first Arab! )) consolidating from it the proverb saying.. the worst of misfortune is what makes one laugh .... ))! Regarding the essence of satirical literature, we see that it is the secret mix between language, vocabulary, folk tale and catching the paradox in the scene, whether this literature is an oral joke, a caricature, a satirical story or a satirical text.

Also, the satirical text must be a secret statement between the writer and the reader, between concern and the laugh, between the pain and its owner, between the pen and the eraser like lovers' letters, secret, shy and in-between, where the quiet whispering is between the redness of the wound and the redness of the lips, between letter and letter, between the forehead and the shawl.. for sarcasm is the coffee of the laborers... and laughter is their free smoke.

We would like to focus on the importance of satirical reading as it is the lower lip of satirical writing... so if satirical writing is the first quotation mark, then reading is the second quotation mark.. without correct reading, the description remains open and the metaphor unclear, so satirical reading is necessary so that we can close the parentheses on our borrowed laughter... Also satirical literature by itself expresses a state of rejection of reality but in a form capable of expression without clashing or creating a direct state of confrontation with a state of authority, so satirical literature expressed all of the above in different eras, and the literature of "Al-Sa'alik" (the vagabonds) can be considered a form of satirical literature against tribal authority in pre-Islamic literature, and in later eras "Al-Ayyar" and "Al-Shuttar" appeared and one of their most important weapons was sarcasm.

Dr. Fawaz bin Abdulaziz Al-La'bun tells us: In my opinion, satirical writing in the Kingdom is still in the stage of formation despite the old beginnings that were supposed to contribute to its artistic and thematic elevation currently. Also its writers are limited, but I think the coming is more beautiful, especially with the media and network openness that allowed the public to learn about a large group of these writings, and thus they were affected by them at the level of acceptance and at the level of imitation. Despite the fact that the satirical writer relies on an expressive and descriptive energy of a special kind, his luck in the intellectual and cultural scenes comes later not earlier, and perhaps that returned to the heat and intensity of the two scenes, and their need for direct clear presentation. This does not mean that the influence of the satirical writer is small, for he has his distinctive presence that I can describe as respiratory then therapeutic, unlike other writers who place their scalpel on the wound with more seriousness.
Al-La'bun asserts that the character of the satirical writer cannot be adopted by anyone, and that each satirical writer has his own thumbprint. Whatever the case, writers have the agility of their souls, and the refinement of their manners individually and socially, and they excel at catching expressions and descriptions from their own experiences and the experiences of those around them. They have a transparent view of what is ing on around them, as they focus on appearances before phenomena, and they excel at employing exaggeration, magnifying and belittling as well, and they have a charismatic appeal that makes what they present acceptable despite its faults even if not accepted in truth, whereas if others presented it, the reactions would have been completely different.

Satirical writing is above anything else a talent, then comes acquisition as a support and developer. By these two (talent and acquisition) the greatest degree of success for the satirical writer is achieved. I find no difference between oral and written sarcasm except in the linguistic ability required by writing, for the two contents are similar, but the satirical writer arranges them in an elegant agile language, taking his time in the method of performance, whereas the speaking satirist is freed from the constraints of the written linguistic game to a wider and more spontaneous expressive space, and the two (the writer and the satirist) are qualified and talented, and the satirical writer can transform his sarcasm into spoken, whereas that doesn't happen to the speaking satirist unless he masters the game of writing.

Critic and academic Mohammed Al-Boudi says: Satirical writing still occupies a small space in our local writings at the level of newspapers and magazines, and this returns to the scarcity of this type of writing which needs a writer of a certain caliber who can employ his pen well and satirically without falling into social, political and religious taboos. Consequently, writings were found at the current time and there are those who have attempts that their writings be satirical, but they haven't reached the level reached by writers of Lebanon or Egypt or Jordan.

There are efforts by some writers here in the Kingdom, among them Mr. Turki Al-Dakhil who started to perfume his writings with the satirical style, as well as Mohammed Al-Suhaimi who is keen on this direction. There are writers who combine serious and satirical writing, then we find few articles that cloak themselves in satirical writing.

Mr. Mohammed points out that the writer in this field should not be an ordinary writer but at an advanced stage of writing and a special color that needs a degree of knowledge and possession of language and being closer to a man of letters than to a writer.

Al-Boudi confirms that the satirical writer is luckier with the public than those whom articles hit the bullseye and those concerned with this writing. In the end, it is talent and capabilities then acquisition and training, especially for those who train their taste, pen and readings in previous writings like heritage books and understanding language and double entendre and benefiting from them. This is what only the practiced man of letters who is close to the entrances of language has reached.

In turn, the man of letters and storyteller Nasser Al-Jassem intervened by saying: Satirical literature is as old as writing itself, and as old as oratory, to the extent that we can almost be certain that irony as a verbal art began with the start of speech, and was not an creative art whose pillars and foundations were laid by one single creator, but its elements and pillars were formed in a cumulative and hierarchical way across the extension of oral and written ages, and it took for us as Arabs an important space especially from the men of letters in the Abbasid era.

Sarcasm is a fluid art that leaks into all arts of speech, so we find the satirical article writer and satirical story as well as the novel and poem. We find the great satirical novelist who has the long breath in sarcasm and mockery of reality in a distinctive and lovable way for the recipient.

But compared to the playwright, the playwright has a more abundant environment since sarcasm is a theatrical art in the first degree and the playwright's environment is the most fertile environment.

As for the Kingdom, this art did not enjoy the hoped-for development because literature for us is doomed by the sword of judgment or the writer's fear of using this art or treatment with satirical language to ward off judicial trial from himself, and therefore this art was used in its lowest creative degrees.

He adds: The satirical writer doesn't have many tools more than his ability to make others laugh at the phenomenon being satirized or at the literary opponent to whom sarcasm is directed. Possession of laughter is only available for those who have high literary ability, and that ability comes as talent or by instinct and may be acquisition.

Written sarcasm is more curative and more effective as it becomes a reference to return to and enjoys permanence and immortality, whereas oral sarcasm if it came through a sportsman or politician or through TV screens, it enjoys a short temporal permanence but gains a wider space in dissemination and is subject to the human before the monster of time.

As for critic Abdullah Al-Melhem, he says: Satirical writing is a type of criticism and it is mostly two types: subjective writing that comes as poetry or prose within self-criticism and satirizing it, as with Jaafar Abbas from the moderns, and Abu Dulama from the ancients. This type is mostly seen among peoples deeply rooted in civilization, and it is rare in Saudi styles, although its approach appeared shyly with Ghazi Al-saibi, Mishal Al-Sudairy, Abdullah Al-Shabat, Ali Al-Omair and others. This type of satirical writing is the most difficult because it requires high psychological fitness exceeding self-flagellation to mocking it. The other type is critical writing, and sarcasm comes in its folds implicitly not intentionally, and writers of this type are the most in our cultural scene, like Abu Abdulrahman bin Aqeel Al-Zahiri, Hassan bin Fahd Al-Huwaymel, Abdulaziz Al-Suwaid and others. The satirical writer is often resented, especially in scenes most constrained by criticism as in our local scene, where celebratory complimentary criticism exists not judging of texts. Of course, a society newly acquainted with civilization like ours doesn't accept satirical writing in all its manifestations in critiquing the self, wife, son, neighbor, colleague and friend as with satirical article writers. This of course doesn't justify the fading of sarcasm from criticism in light of the presence of a collapsed presentation that mocks with awareness and culture of the targeted reader with flimsy writings in most need of the critic's scalpel not his ointments.

He adds: Satirical writing is critical writing but in one direction so that it doesn't accept rotation, meaning that every satirical writer is a critic of course, but it is not necessary that every critic is a satirical writer.

Accordingly, satirical writing is a composite talent besides the talent of criticism, and it differs from oral sarcasm in two aspects: for even if phrased in a satirical text, sarcasm doesn't mean absurdity, and its presence even if it appeared as a biting caricature, it doesn't exempt it from moral commitment to the ethics of the responsible word, and this doesn't contradict because sarcasm specifically is outside classification.

Al-Melhem points out that the satirical writer is free to drop his own right in self-protection, as well as those who know their implicit approval to be treated with his quips, but he doesn't possess the same degree of freedom in satirizing others except in certain cases. First: that his sarcasm be in exchange for others' sarcasm of him by way of treatment. Second: when the targeted for criticism is the one who satirized his readers through his sarcasm of their awareness, thought and culture, which we see clearly in many collapsed writings. Third: when sarcasm is of the wrong action and behavior without mentioning names. As long as our cultural scene doesn't free itself from being held hostage to compliment and cultural hypocrisy and loading every writing act the burden of personal accounts, it will not breathe this beautiful charisma inhaled by other scenes deeply that we were deprived of as the desert was deprived of the beautiful iodine smell.

Critic and man of letters Mohammed Al-Bashir sees: that satirical writing in Saudi Arabia has not reached its extent compared to the Arab world, and the matter applies to Arabic satirical writing, for it almost cannot be compared to the global product. That returns to two matters:

First: the nature of the Saudi people compared to Arab peoples. The joke among Saudi people is not comparable to Arab peoples, and this is what labels the Saudi with seriousness compared to others, for he doesn't relish sarcasm publicly while he consumes it secretly.

And because writing is public, it is lower culturally among its peers of literary arts. The serious writer is preferred over others, and this doesn't mean at all turning away from satirical writing, for we are a people of contradictions. Satirical writing is more in demand by readers, yet it was not allowed to be presented in forums. The second matter which is considered the pillar of satirical writing is: (Freedom). Satirical writing needs a high ceiling of freedom, and this is what the Arab world generally and the Saudi specifically lacks, and this is what makes satirical writing late. The internal censor of the writer prevents him - before the censor - from proceeding in sarcasm and flagellation even with a joke! About the future of satirical writing, Al-Bashir says: The future of satirical writing is flourishing, it has taken its place in newspaper columns, and boldness has risen relatively among writers generally. With a quick look at newspaper columns, the follower finds an increase in the number of satirical writers, and this matches the submission of publications to the reader's desire. Satirical columns are more in demand than others for tickling people's concerns and lifting their boredom. Rather, the matter exceeded that to electronic promotion for every satirical article in which the reader sees an amusement for people's concerns amidst financial, economic and service crises and many disappointments.

Al-Bashir adds from the side of public favor that the satirical writer is more lucky, and that is measured by the reader's demand for his column and promotion of what he writes - as we mentioned - for the satirical article is like (caricature) ! The newspaper browser doesn't skip the caricature as well as the satirical article, due to the location of the satirical article in the citizen's soul, for it expresses what is in his chest, and relieves him with a joke. Laughter is a means of relieving sadness, and laughter atop a tragedy is a fragmentation of its mountain. It is the most difficult writing at all, for it is easy to make people cry, but it is difficult to make them laugh. The satirical writer is before a dangerous slope, for either they laugh with him or laugh at him!

The satirical writer must hold his tools like the clown's control of his balls in his hand without one falling from his hand! especially since the origin in every art is entering joy into the human heart according to the words of my companions of comedy and tragedy.