Irony - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Irony - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony[27/02/2012 09:26:58]

IronyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia'squality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanupinstructions.) Please help improve this article if you can. The talkpage may contain suggestions. (January 2012)

"Ironic" redirects here. For the song, see Ironic (song). For other uses, see irony (disambiguation).

Irony (from the Ancient Greek eirnea, meaningdissimulation or feigned ignorance)[1] is a rhetorical device, literarytechnique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity ordiscordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention ofwords or actions. There is presently no accepted method fortextually indicating irony, though an irony (punctuation) mark hasbeen proposed.

Ironic statements (verbal irony) are statements that imply ameaning in opposition to their literal meaning. A situation is oftensaid to be ironic (situational irony) if the actions taken have aneffect exactly opposite from what was intended. The discordance ofverbal irony may be deliberately created as a means ofcommunication (as in art or rhetoric). Descriptions or depictions ofsituational irony, whether in fiction or in non-fiction, serves thecommunicative function of sharpening or highlighting certaindiscordant features of reality. Verbal and situational irony is oftenused for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. The ironic form ofsimile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes emphasize one'smeaning by the deliberate use of language which states theopposite of the truth or drastically and obviously understates afactual connection.

In dramatic irony, the author causes a character to speak or acterroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of whichthe audience is aware. In other words, the audience knows thecharacter is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. This technique highlights theimportance of a particular truth by portraying a person who is strikingly unaware of it.

Contents [hide]

1 Definitions2 Origin of the term3 Types of irony

3.1 Verbal irony3.1.1 Verbal irony and sarcasm

3.2 Dramatic irony3.2.1 Tragic irony

3.3 Situational irony3.3.1 Irony of fate (cosmic irony)3.3.2 Historical irony

4 Irony in use

A stop sign ironically defacedwith a beseechment not todeface stop signs

Read Edit View history

Log in / create account

Article Talk

Main pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to Wikipedia

Interaction

HelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact Wikipedia

Toolbox

Print/export

Languages

BoarischBosanskiBrezhoneg

Catalesky

DanskDeutschEspaolEsperantoFranaisGalego

HrvatskiIdoBahasa IndonesiaslenskaItaliano

Latvieu



4.1 Ironic art4.2 Comic irony4.3 Metafiction4.4 Socratic irony4.5 Irony as infinite, absolute negativity

5 See also6 Notes7 Bibliography8 External links

Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says "any definition of ironythough hundreds mightbe given, and very few of them would be acceptedmust include this, that the surface meaning andthe underlying meaning of what is said are not the same."

Also, Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that "Irony consists in stating the contrary of whatis meant."

The use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. Fowler's A Dictionary of ModernEnglish Usage says:

Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one partythat hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more ismeant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders'incomprehension.[2]

The term is sometimes used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to "every trivial oddity" insituations where there is no double audience.[2] An example of such usage is:

Sullivan, whose real interest was, ironically, serious music, which he composed withvarying degrees of success, achieved fame for his comic opera scores rather than forhis more earnest efforts.[3]

The American Heritage Dictionary's secondary meaning for irony: incongruity between what might beexpected and what actually occurs.[4] This sense, however, is not synonymous with "incongruous"but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony notonly that incongruity is present but also that the incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanityor folly. Thus the majority of American Heritage Dictionarys usage panel found it unacceptable to usethe word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that suggestno particular lessons about human vanity or folly.[5]

According to the Encyclopdia Britannica,

The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog whoby his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony ofthe Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin.[6]

According to Richard Whately:

Aristotle mentions..Eironeia, which in his time was commonly employed to signify, notaccording to the modern use of Irony, saying the contrary to what is meant, but, whatlater writers usually express by Litotes, i.e. saying less than is meant.[7]

The word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie.It derives from the Latin ironia and ultimately from the Greek eirnea, meaningdissimulation, ignorance purposely affected.[8]

[edit]Definitions

[edit]Origin of the term

LtzebuergeschLietuvi

MagyarNederlandsNorsk (bokml)OccitanPolskiPortugus

ShqipSimple EnglishSlovenina

Slovenina

/ Srpski

Srpskohrvatski /

SuomiSvenskaTrke



Modern theories of rhetoric distinguish among verbal,dramatic and situational irony.

Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention:when a speaker says one thing but means another, orwhen a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect.An example of this is when someone says "Oh, that'sbeautiful", when what they mean (probably conveyed bytheir tone) is they find "that" quite ugly.

Dramatic irony is a disparity of awareness betweenactor and observer: when words and actions possesssignificance that the listener or audience understands,but the speaker or character does not, for examplewhen a character says to another "I'll see youtomorrow!" when the audience (but not the character)knows that the character will die before morning.

Situational irony is the disparity of intention and result:when the result of an action is contrary to the desired orexpected effect. Being "shot with one's own gun", or"hoisted with one's own petard" are popular formulations of the basic idea of situational irony.

Cosmic irony is disparity between human desires and the harsh realities of the outside world. Bysome definitions, situational irony and cosmic irony are not irony at all.

According to A glossary of literary terms by Abrams and Hartman,

Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharplydifferent from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. The ironic statement usuallyinvolves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in theoverall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite,attitude or evaluation.[9]

Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is producedintentionally by speakers. For instance, if a man exclaims, Im not upset! but reveals an upsetemotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim he's not upset, it would not be verbalirony by virtue of its verbal manifestation (it would, however, be situational irony). But if the samespeaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he wasnot, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony- speakers communicate implied propositions that are intentionally contradictory to the propositionscontained in the words themselves. There are, however, examples of verbal irony that do not rely onsaying the opposite of what one means, and there are cases where all the traditional criteria of ironyexist and the utterance is not ironic.

Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite ofwhat they mean. For instance, the following explicit similes begin with the deceptive formation of astatement that means A but that eventually conveys the meaning not A:

as soft as concreteas clear as mudas pleasant as a root canal"as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake" (Kurt Vonnegut from Breakfast of Champions)

The irony is recognizable in each case only by using stereotypical knowledge of the source concepts(e.g., that mud is opaque, that root canal surgery is painful) to detect an incongruity.

In The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket, this formulation is broken down by the

[edit]Types of irony

A "No smoking" sign surrounded byimages of a smoking Sherlock Holmes atBaker Street tube station

[edit]Verbal irony



construction of an ironic simile followed by a reversion of the meaning so the statement once againmeans A.

"Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate, if the cup ofhot chocolate had vinegar added to it and were placed in a refrigerator for several hours.""The day was as normal as a group of seals with wings riding around on unicycles, assuming thatyou lived someplace where that was very normal."

A fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue regarding the relationship between verbal ironyand sarcasm.

Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage states:

Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm.

This suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. The OED entry forsarcasm does not mention irony, but the irony entry reads:

A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed bythe words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatoryexpressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt.

The Encyclopdia Britannica has "Non-literary irony is often called sarcasm; while the Webster'sDictionary entry is:

Sarcasm: 1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain.2 a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironiclanguage that is usually directed against an individual.

Partridge in Usage and Abusage would separate the two forms of speech completely:

Irony must not be confused with sarcasm, which is direct: sarcasm means preciselywhat it says, but in a sharp, caustic, ... manner.

The psychologist Martin, in The psychology of humour, is quite clear that irony is where the literalmeaning is opposite to the intended; and sarcasm is aggressive humor that pokes fun.[10] He hasthe following examples: For irony he uses the statement "What a nice day" when it is raining. Forsarcasm, he cites Winston Churchill who, when told by a lady that he was drunk, said "my dear, youare ugly ... but tomorrow I shall be sober", as being sarcastic, while not saying the opposite of what isintended.

Psychology researchers Lee and Katz (1998) have addressed the issue directly. They found thatridicule is an important aspect of sarcasm, but not of verbal irony in general. By this account,sarcasm is a particular kind of personal criticism leveled against a person or group of persons thatincorporates verbal irony. For example, a woman reports to her friend that rather than going to amedical doctor to treat her cancer, she has decided to see a spiritual healer instead. In response herfriend says sarcastically, "Oh, brilliant, what an ingenious idea, that's really going to cure you." Thefriend could have also replied with any number of ironic expressions that should not be labeled assarcasm exactly, but still have many shared elements with sarcasm.

Most instances of verbal irony are labeled by research subjects as sarcastic, suggesting that the termsarcasm is more widely used than its technical definition suggests it should be (Bryant & Fox Tree,2002; Gibbs, 2000). Some psycholinguistic theorists (e.g., Gibbs, 2000) suggest that sarcasm ("Greatidea!", "I hear they do fine work."), hyperbole ("That's the best idea I have heard in years!"),understatement ("Sure, what the hell, it's only cancer..."), rhetorical questions ("What, does your spirithave cancer?"), double entendre ("I'll bet if you do that, you'll be communing with spirits in notime...") and jocularity ("Get them to fix your bad back while you're at it.") should all be consideredforms of verbal irony. The differences between these tropes can be quite subtle, and relate to typicalemotional reactions of listeners, and the rhetorical goals of the speakers. Regardless of the variousways theorists categorize figurative language types, people in conversation are attempting to decodespeaker intentions and discourse goals, and are not generally identifying, by name, the kinds oftropes used (Leggitt & Gibbs, 2000).

[edit]Verbal irony and sarcasm



This type of irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of thecharacters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a stepahead of at least one of the characters. Dramatic irony has three stagesinstallation, exploitation,and resolution (often also called preparation, suspension, and resolution)producing dramatic conflictin what one character relies or appears to rely upon, the contrary of which is known by observers(especially the audience; sometimes to other characters within the drama) to be true. In summary, itmeans that the reader/watcher/listener knows something that one or more of the characters in thepiece is not aware of.

For example:

In City Lights the audience knows that Charlie Chaplin's character is not a millionaire, but theblind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) believes him to be rich.In North by Northwest, the audience knows that Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is not Kaplan;Vandamm (James Mason) and his accomplices do not. The audience also knows that Kaplan is afictitious agent invented by the CIA; Roger (initially) and Vandamm (throughout) do not.In Oedipus the King, the reader knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer that he is seeking;Oedipus, Creon and Jocasta do not.In Othello, the audience knows that Desdemona has been faithful to Othello, but Othello does not.The audience also knows that Iago is scheming to bring about Othello's downfall, a fact hiddenfrom Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Roderigo.In The Cask of Amontillado, the reader knows that Montresor is planning on murdering Fortunato,while Fortunato believes they are friends.In The Truman Show, the viewer is aware that Truman is on a television show, but Trumanhimself only gradually learns this.In Romeo and Juliet, the other characters in the cast think Juliet is dead, but the audience knowsshe only took a sleeping potion.In Forrest Gump, the audience knows the historical significance of the characters and scenariosForrest Gump finds himself in, but he often does not.

Tragic irony is a special category of dramatic irony. In tragic irony, the words and actions of thecharacters contradict the real situation, which the spectators fully realize. The Oxford EnglishDictionary has:

the incongruity created when the (tragic) significance of a character's speech or actionsis revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned, the literary deviceso used, orig. in Greek tragedy.[11]

Ancient Greek drama was especially characterized by tragic irony because the audiences were sofamiliar with the legends that most of the plays dramatized. Sophocles' Oedipus the King provides aclassic example of tragic irony at its fullest. Colebrook writes:

Tragic irony is exemplified in ancient drama ... The audience watched a drama unfold,already knowing its destined outcome. ... In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, for example,'we' (the audience) can see what Oedipus is blind to. The man he murders is his father,but he does not know it.[12]

Irony has some of its foundation in the onlookers perception of paradox that arises from insolubleproblems. For example, in the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo finds Julietin a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to findher dead lover beside her, Juliet stabs herself with a dagger thus killing herself.

This is a relatively modern use of the term, and describes a discrepancy between the expected resultand actual results in a certain situation.

[edit]Dramatic irony

[edit]Tragic irony

[edit]Situational irony



For example:

When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed thePresident; however, a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struckReagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire was partially

responsible for his being shot.[13]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a story whose plot revolves around irony. Dorothy travels to awizard and fulfills her challenging demands to go home, before discovering she had the ability togo back home all the time. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence, only to discover he is already agenius, and the Tin Woodsman longs to be capable of love, only to discover he already has aheart. The Lion, who at first appears to be a whimpering coward, turns out to be bold andfearless. The people in Emerald City believed the Wizard to be a powerful deity, only to discoverthat he is a bumbling, eccentric old man with no special powers at all.

The expression irony of fate stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusingthemselves by toying with the minds of mortals with deliberate ironic intent. Closely connected withsituational irony, it arises from sharp contrasts between reality and human ideals, or between humanintentions and actual results. The resulting situation is poignantly contrary to what was expected orintended.

The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstancesthat might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable".[14]

Some examples of situations poignantly contrary to expectation:

In art:

In O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi", a young couple are too poor to buy each otherChristmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy herhusband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's shocked when she learns he had pawnedhis watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair.In the ancient Indian story of Krishna, King Kamsa is told in a prophecy that a child of his sisterDevaki would kill him. To prevent this, he imprisons both Devaki and her husband Vasudeva,allowing them to live only if they hand over their children as soon as they are born. He murdersnearly all of them, one by one, but the seventh and eighth children, Balarama and Krishna, aresaved and raised by a royal couple, Nanda and Yashoda. After the boys grow up, Krishnaeventually kills Kamsa as the prophecy foretold. Kamsa's attempt to prevent the prophecy led to itbecoming a reality. Self-fulfilling prophecies are common motifs in Greek mythology as well. Thisstory is similar to the story of Cronus preventing his wife from raising any children, the one whoends up defeating him being Zeus, the later King of the Gods. Other similar tales in GreekMythology include Perseus (who killed his grandfather, Acrisius by accident with a discus despiteAcrisius' attempt to avert his fate) and more famously Oedipus who killed his father and marriedhis mother not knowing their relationship due to being left to die by his father to prevent that veryprophecy from occurring.

In history:

In the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling in 1856, the United States Supreme Court held that the FifthAmendment barred any law that would deprive a slaveholder of his property, such as his slaves,upon the incidence of migration into free territory. So, in a sense, the Supreme Court used the Billof Rights to deny rights to slaves.In the Kalgoorlie (Australia) gold rush of the 1890s, large amounts of the little-known mineralcalaverite (gold telluride) were ironically identified as fool's gold. These mineral deposits wereused as a cheap building material, and for the filling of potholes and ruts. When several yearslater the mineral was identified, there was a minor gold rush to excavate the streets.

[edit]Irony of fate (cosmic irony)



John F. Kennedy's last conversation was ironic in light of events which followed seconds later.During the motorcade in Dallas, in response to Mrs. Connolly's comment, "Mr. President, youcan't say that Dallas doesn't love you," Kennedy replied, "That's very obvious." Immediately after,

he was mortally wounded.[15]

In 1974, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had to recall 80,000 of its own lapelbuttons promoting "toy safety", because the buttons had sharp edges, used lead paint, and had

small clips that could be broken off and subsequently swallowed.[16]

Introducing cane toads to Australia to control the cane beetle not only failed to control the pest,but introduced, in the toads themselves, a very much worse pest.Kudzu - a vine imported to the United States in the 1930s and planted all over the South at thedirection of the US Government in order to prevent soil erosion. Instead of preventing erosion, itclimbs and chokes native trees and plants, thus causing even more erosion.

When history is seen through modern eyes, there often appear sharp contrasts between the wayhistorical figures see their world's future and what actually transpires. For example, during the 1920sThe New York Times repeatedly scorned crossword puzzles. In 1924, it lamented "the sinful waste inthe utterly futile finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern." In 1925 it said"the question of whether the puzzles are beneficial or harmful is in no urgent need of an answer. Thecraze evidently is dying out fast." Today, no U.S. newspaper is more closely identified with thecrossword than The New York Times.[17]

In a more tragic example of historical irony, what people now refer to as "The First World War" wascalled by H.G. Wells "The war that will end war",[18] which soon became "The war to end war" and"The War to End All Wars", and this became a widespread truism, almost a cliche. Historical irony istherefore a subset of cosmic irony, but one in which the element of time is bound to play a role.Another example could be that of the Vietnam war, where in the 1960s the U.S.A. attempted to stopthe Viet Cong (Viet Minh) taking over South Vietnam. However it is an often ignored fact that theU.S. originally supported the Viet Minh to prevent imperialist ambitions.[citation needed]

Gunpowder was, according to prevailing academic consensus, discovered in the 9th century byChinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality.[19]

Historical irony also includes inventors killed by their own creations, such as William Bullock unless, due to the nature of the invention, the risk of death was always known and accepted, as inthe case of Otto Lilienthal.

In certain kinds of situational or historical irony, a factual truth is highlighted by some person'scomplete ignorance of it or his belief in the opposite of it. However, this state of affairs does notoccur by human design. In some religious contexts, such situations have been seen as the deliberatework of Divine Providence to emphasize truths and to taunt humans for not being aware of themwhen they could easily have been enlightened (this is similar to human use of irony). Such ironiesare often more evident, or more striking, when viewed retrospectively in the light of laterdevelopments which make the truth of past situations obvious to all.

One point of view has it that all modern art is ironic because the viewer cannot help but compare itto previous works. For example, any portrait of a standing, non-smiling woman will naturally becompared with the Mona Lisa; the tension of meaning exists, whether the artist meant it or not.

While this does not appear to exactly conform to any of the three types of irony above, there is someevidence that the term "ironic art" is being used in this context.[20] This definition could extend to anysort of modern artistic endeavour: graphic design or music (sampling, for example).

For example:

A South African weekly published a cartoon by Zapiro of the Prophet Mohammad complaining that

[edit]Historical irony

[edit]Irony in use

[edit]Ironic art



his followers lack a sense of humor, angering Muslims and raising fear of reprisal attacks duringthe 2010 World Cup.

Irony is often used in literature to produce a comic effect. This may also be combined with satire. Forinstance, an author may facetiously state something as a well-known fact and then demonstratethrough the narrative that the fact is untrue.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice begins with the proposition It is a truth universally acknowledged,that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. In fact, it soonbecomes clear that Austen means the opposite: women (or their mothers) are always in search of,and desperately on the lookout for, a rich single man to make a husband. The irony deepens as thestory promotes this romance and ends in a double marriage proposal.

Main article: Metafiction

Metafictions are kinds of fiction that self-consciously address the devices of fiction. It usually involvesirony and is self-reflective. Metafiction (or romantic irony in the sense of roman the prosefiction[citation needed]) refers to the effect when a story is interrupted to remind the audience or readerthat it is really only a story. Examples include Henry Fieldings interruptions of the storyline tocomment on what has happened, or J.M. Barries similar interjections in his book, Peter Pan. Theconcept is also explored in a philosophical context in Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder.

Notable attempts to sustain metafiction throughout a whole novel are Christie Malry's Own DoubleEntry by B.S. Johnson, in which none of the characters are real and exist only within the author'simagination, and In The Night Room by Peter Straub, in which the narrator is an author, whosefictional character comes to life and accompanies him through the book.

Main article: Socratic irony

This is "The dissimulation of ignorance practised by Socrates as a means of confuting anadversary".[21] Socrates would pretend to be ignorant of the topic under discussion, in order to drawout the inherent nonsense in the arguments of his interlocutors. Chambers dictionary has: "a meansby which a questioner pretends to know less than a respondent, when actually he knows more."

Zoe Williams of The Guardian wrote: "The technique [of Socratic irony], demonstrated in the Platonicdialogues, was to pretend ignorance and, more sneakily, to feign credence in your opponent's powerof thought, in order to tie him in knots."[20]

A more modern example of Socratic irony can be seen on the 1970s American television show,Columbo. The fictional character, Lt. Columbo, is seemingly nave and incompetent. His untidyappearance adds to this fumbling illusion. As a result, he is underestimated by the suspects inmurder cases he is investigating. With their guard down and their false sense of confidence, Lt.Columbo is able to solve the cases leaving the murderers feeling duped and outwitted.

Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, and others, see irony, such as that used by Socrates, as adisruptive force with the power to undo texts and readers alike.[22] The phrase itself is taken fromHegel's Lectures on Aesthetics, and is applied by Kierkegaard to the irony of Socrates. This traditionincludes 19th century German critic and novelist Friedrich Schlegel ("On Incomprehensibility"),Charles Baudelaire, Stendhal, and the 20th century deconstructionist Paul de Man ("The Concept ofIrony"). In Kierkegaard's words, from On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates:

[Socratic] irony [is] the infinite absolute negativity. It is negativity, because it onlynegates; it is infinite, because it does not negate this or that phenomenon; it isabsolute, because that by virtue of which it negates is a higher something that still isnot. The irony established nothing, because that which is to be established lies behindit...[23]

[edit]Comic irony

[edit]Metafiction

[edit]Socratic irony

[edit]Irony as infinite, absolute negativity



Where much of philosophy attempts to reconcile opposites into a larger positive project, Kierkegaardand others insist that ironywhether expressed in complex games of authorship or simple litotesmust, in Kierkegaard's words, "swallow its own stomach". Irony entails endless reflection and violentreversals, and ensures incomprehensibility at the moment it compels speech. Similarly, among otherliterary critics, writer David Foster Wallace viewed the pervasiveness of ironic and other postmoderntropes as the cause of "great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists[ironies] pose terrifically vexing problems."[24]

Irony mark ()SatireApophasisSarcasmHypocrisyParadoxOxymoronPost-ironyIronism

1. ^ Liddell & Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, v. sub .2. ^ a b Fowler, HW, A dictionary of modern English usage, 1926.3. ^ Gassner, J., Quinn, E., The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama, Courier Dover Publications, 2002,

p.358.4. ^ ""irony" at dictionary.com" . Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2010-12-23.5. ^ Quoted in The Free Dictionary under ironic: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ironic .6. ^ Encyclopdia Britannica7. ^ Whately, R. Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 265/1 (cited in the OED entry)8. ^ Oxford English Dictionary9. ^ Abrams, M. H., & Harpham, G.G., A glossary of literary terms, 9th Ed., Wadsworth Cengage Learning,

2009.10. ^ Martin, R.A., The psychology of humor: an integrative approach, Elsevier Academic Press, 2007. p13.11. ^ Oxford English Dictionary entry for irony12. ^ Colebrook, Claire. Irony. London and New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 14.13. ^ The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr. by Doug Linder. 2001 Retrieved 9 September 2008.14. ^ Quoted in The Free Dictionary under ironic: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ironic . Accessed 11

Feb 2011.15. ^ http://www.diplom.org/manus/Presidents/faq/last.html Last words of presidents16. ^ Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2007, Page B1: It Dawned on Adults After WWII: 'You'll Shoot Your

Eye Out!' . Retrieved October 29, 2009.17. ^ Wordplay18. ^ Wells, H.G., The war that will end war, 1914.19. ^ Jack Kelly Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that

Changed the World, Perseus Books Group: 2005, ISBN :0465037224, 9780465037223: pp. 2-520. ^ a b "Online: The Final Irony" . Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-23.21. ^ Oxford English Dictionary under irony .22. ^ Kierkegaard, S, The concept of irony with continuous reference to Socrates (1841), Harper & Row,

1966, p. 278.23. ^ Quoted in24. ^ Wallace, David Foster. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction". Review of Contemporary

Fiction 13 (2): 151194.

[edit]See also

[edit]Notes



Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Mobile view

This page was last modified on 25 February 2012 at 08:15.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms ofuse for details.Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Contact us

Bogel, Fredric V. "Irony, Inference, and CriticalUnderstanding." Yale Review, 503-19.Booth, Wayne C. A Rhetoric of Irony. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1975.Bryant, G. A., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2002).Recognizing verbal irony in spontaneous speech.Metaphor and Symbol, 17, 99-115.Colebrook, Claire. Irony. London and New York:Routledge, 2004.Gibbs, R. W. (2000). Irony in talk among friends.Metaphor and Symbol, 15, 527.Hutcheon, Linda. Ironys Edge: The Theory andPolitics of Irony. London: Routledge, 1994.Kierkegaard, Sren. On the Concept of Irony withContinual Reference to Socrates. 1841; Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1992.

Lavandier, Yves. Writing Drama, pages 263-315.Lee, C. J., & Katz, A. N. (1998). The differentialrole of ridicule in sarcasm and irony. Metaphor andSymbol, 13, 115.Leggitt, J., & Gibbs, R. W. (2000). Emotionalreactions to verbal irony. Discourse Processes,29(1), 124.Muecke, D. C. The Compass of Irony. London:Methuen, 1969.Star, William T. "Irony and Satire: A Bibliography."Irony and Satire in French Literature. Ed.University of South Carolina Department of ForeignLanguages and Literatures. Columbia, SC:University of South Carolina College of Humanitiesand Social Sciences, 1987. 183-209.

"The final irony "a Guardian article about irony, use and misuse of the termArticle on the etymology of Irony"Irony", by Norman D. Knox , in Dictionary of the History of Ideas (1973)"Sardonicus "a web-resource that provides access to similes, ironic and otherwise, harvestedfrom the web.Excerpt on dramatic irony from Yves Lavandier's Writing Drama"American Irony" compared with British irony, quoting Stephen FryAmerican and British irony compared by Simon PeggModern example of ironic writing

Categories: Comedy Humor Irony Rhetorical techniques Fiction Theme Tropes by type

[edit]Bibliography

[edit]External links

wikipedia.orgIrony - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

lwZWRpYS5vcmcvd2lraS9Jcm9ueQA=: form3: search: button:

Irony - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Documents

Transcript of Irony - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia