Notion Of Irony Research Articles

Intertextual Irony: Between Relevance Theory and Umberto Eco

Abstract This article discusses the advantages deriving from the interaction of pragmatics and literary theory in the study of literary irony. The first section argues that the current (mis)understanding of irony is the result of a centuries-long intertwinement between rhetorical and philosophical discourses. The paper then shows how the echoic theory of irony, devised by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson within the broader framework of their Relevance Theory, provides literary scholars with a different and potentially useful notion of irony and its functions. The third section compares echoic irony to Umberto Eco’s definition of irony. Intertextual irony is then defined, and identified as a fourth type of irony, in addition to verbal, situational or dramatic ironies. Literary examples and implications of intertextual irony are also analysed. In the fourth and final section expressions of a diffuse sense of rejection of irony in contemporary culture are briefly discussed. By applying an innovative methodology to the study of figurative language, this article aims to introduce the concept of intertextual irony as a reader-oriented tool for literary analysis, as well as to emphasize the role that pragmatics can play in the refinement of the vocabulary of literary criticism and theory.

Función social de la ironía en Decamerón, de Giovanni Boccaccio

Decameron has caused a convulsive reaction due to its social content and the mockery of patterns ascribed to medieval religion and morality in Italy. Therefore, support is provided here for the reasons leading to such astonishment about the literary work by Giovanni Boccaccio. Attention is given to the concept of the social function of irony, which in turn would start from three basic principles developed by Bergson. A comic situation requires intelligence, insensitivity and social criticism. Thus, it is possible to explain that the notion of irony is conditioned by the author’s worldview.

Conflict and Contact: From John Donne’s “Dialogue of One” to T. S. Eliot’s Monologue

This paper aims to read Donne’s certain love poems in conjunction with Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Eliot believes English poetry composed in the 17th century resonates with that of the 20th century. Therefore, this article explores the similarities and differences between the metaphysical poetry and the modernist poetry. This discussion is predicated upon the notion of wholeness in Donne and the idea of fragmentation in Eliot. The exploration of the themes of completion and disintegration initially focuses on the concept of ecstasy, analyses how the boundary between the self and the other dissolves and how the conventional dichotomy between the body and the spirit is challenged. This article also deals with the notion of irony in terms of fragmentation and compares the use of irony in Eliot’s poem with the employment of metaphysical conceits based on binary oppositions in Donne’s poems. This study further concentrates on both poets with regards to the sensuousness of language. It finally contrasts the unified sensibility of the seventeenth-century poet with the dissociated sensibility of the twentieth-century poet. This paper concludes Donne’s “dialogue of one” rests upon conflict and contact whereas Eliot’s monologue does not lead to contact.

PARTIAL DEFENSE OF ‘RORTYANISM’ AGAINST SOME CLAIMS OF RELATIVISM AND SUBJECTIVISM

Richard Rorty’s critics often considered him a relativist and a subjectivist, but he should be described as a particular type of sceptic: an ironist. The accusations of relativism and subjectivism only apply to Rorty’s philosophy if we evaluate it through the lenses of the very perspective he seeks to reject - a path a bit senseless to be taken. To illustrate, I will consider - and comment on - some of the criticisms raised against Rorty by Hilary Putnam. The task is, then, to rehearse a partial defense of Rortyan ironic pragmatism. There is intrinsic value in the sort of philosophical irony Rorty stood for. Yet, this notion of irony is the same that leads Rorty to reduce philosophy to a mere literary genre, and this is not without its contradictions. My doubt is whether, in the end, Rorty’s reduction of the role of philosophy is self-refuting.

Go Trampling on Vairocana’s Head! Role and Functions of Irony in the Blue Cliff Record

Since the wide corpus of Chan 禪 literature includes a significant number and a consistent variety of ironic features such as puns, wordplay, extravagant acts, and so forth, a clarification of the role and functions of irony is especially relevant to this framework. The idea of the present essay is that irony works in Chan Buddhism as a functional strategy purposely employed in textual compositions and oral communication. Analysing the Blue Cliff Record (Biyan Lu 碧巖錄), one of the most influential and significant texts in the history of East Asian Buddhism, I individuated three functions of irony that clarify its role in the wider context of Chan rhetoric. Specifically, these functions consist in performing a rhetoric of self-desecration, inducing amusement, and instilling doubt. Upon defining the notion of irony, the current essay expounds on these functions with reference to the text, then the role of irony in the Blue Cliff Record is finally identified as a hermeneutic device.

Drawing Lines and Crossing Borders: Transformation Theory and Richard Rorty’s Philosophy

This article aims at expanding transformation theory through the work of the philosopher Richard Rorty. His concept of redescription allows us to distinguish between good learning and transformative learning and to counteract the critique of conceptional looseness. In addition, Rorty’s thesis of contingency and his notion of irony are going to be explored in respect to their implications for transformative learning theory.

Schelling in the Kierkegaardian Project: Between Kantian Critique and the Second Ethics

AbstractSeeking to determine what it is that incites Kierkegaard’s enthusiasm during Schelling’s early lectures at Berlin, then what it is that thoroughly extinguishes his hope in months to follow, I establish: first, that the criticisms of Hegel in Schelling’s negative philosophy depend upon Kantian distinctions and reflect Kant’s critical methodology; secondly, that the leveling function Schelling assigns to these distinctions corresponds to the notion of irony as a destructive force found in The Concept of Irony; finally, that Kierkegaard will come to concretize an account that adheres more closely to Kant’s transition from negative to positive than to Schelling’s.

'Hoist with His Own Petard'? Guilty Lies and Ironic Inferences in Criminal Proof

The guilty-lie inference involves an ironical reversal. The defendant’s exculpatory statement - an alibi, for example - is proven false and ends up being used by the prosecution for an inculpatory purpose. The defendant is hoist with his own petard. This article uses the notion of irony to analyse the guilty-lie inference, both its sometimes fragile logic and its potentially dangerous allure.