Satire and dignity Giselinde Kuipers Tis chapter examines satire from the target’s point of view: how to respond to satire without losing dignity? Te power of satire lies in its capacity to challenge dignity, which threatens social position, political legitimacy and individual well-being. Analysing concrete examples of satire, the essay reviews the merits, risks and limitations of possible responses: laugh, joke back, argue, retaliate, show anger, or withdraw. Te capacity to respond with dignity is not distrib- uted evenly: not everyone has the resources to do so. Moreover, there is not always consensus on what counts as a dignifed response. In today’s increasingly diverse and globalised societies, this makes satire increasingly contested and risky, but also an increasingly important domain for intercultural encounters and negotiations. “But he hasn’t got anything on!” a little child said. “Dear me, listen to that innocent voice,” the child’s father said, and people whispered to one another what the child had said. “But he’s got nothing on – a little child says he’s got nothing on.” “He’s really got nothing on!” everybody fnally shouted. Te emperor cringed, because he realized that they were right. But this is what he thought: “I have to see this through.” He walked ever more proudly, and the lords-in-waiting walked behind him, carrying the train that was not there at all. (Andersen 2005: 110) Tis is how we imagine satire: the sudden revelation of an awkward truth, expos- ing those in power as ridiculous – laughable. Te satirist is simultaneously heroic and somehow pure, like the child in Andersen’s tale: the only person not duped by the illusion, unimpressed by status. Te story of the naked emperor ends on a painful note (as most of Andersen’s tales do): not with the liberating discovery of the truth, but with a mocking description of the emperor’s predicament. 1 Walking . Andersen considered this a satirical tale. As the editor of the annotated version writes, Andersen changed the ending of the story just before it was printed, adding a fnal line which, he stated, “will give everything a more satirical appearance” (Andersen 2005: 110). doi 10.1075/thr.2.02kui © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company