This study investigates the negotiation process involved in the definition of the latitude and license permissible in 'satirical' writing over a period of more than 200 years. Literature and literary theory are observed in communicative interaction with contemporary law, medicine, pedagogics and theology. The productive force inherent in the cultural taboo imposed on aggression manifests itself in theory formation and practice. The investigation closes with analyses of three texts enacting such negotiations in a literary form: Christian Thomasius' ;Ostergedancken+ (1695), an excerpt from Bodmer/Breitinger's 'Mahler der Sitten' (1746), and Theodor Haecker's 'Dialog über die Satire' (1927).