The amusing and the useful: comic devices and aspects of "common usefulness" in three satirical and burlesque letters written by Eugenio de Salazar

Abstract

In this article I study the three satirical-burlesque letters that Eugenio de Salazar explicitly requested be published if his Silva de poesía made it to the printing press. He made this request, arguing that “it seems they have some common usefulness”. On the one hand, I examine the rhetorical devices that frequently appear in the letters, enhancing their humorous quality; on the other, I explain why I consider the “common usefulness” the author attributes to them to be related to the information we can extrapolate from his satirical critique of the institution he portrays in each of these three letters.