What is Irony?
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Irony (from the ancient Greek eironeia, meaning dissimulation or feigned ignorance), in its broadest sense is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event characterized by an incongruity, or contrast, between reality (that which is) and appearance (that which is not, or that which seems to be). The term may be further defined into several sub-categories, among which are verbal, situational, and dramatic.
All three are used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes, emphasize one's meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of truth -- or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection. Irony and the Double Audience
The use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage says the following: Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension.
To put it another way, the "in joke" of irony is played to a crowd that can understand both the joke as well as the fact that they ARE the "in crowd" who gets it. Irony and the Double Speaker
Just as there is a double audience in irony, there is also a double speaker -- an apparent speaker or narrator telling the surface truth, and another -- often diametrically opposed or significantly different -- actual speaker whose views are usually in deep tension with that of the surface speaker or narrator.
The central problem for students is this: HOW DO YOU KNOW? (Hint: The grammar of irony wil help you!) Irony Uses Humor to Create Change Through Enlightenment
Humor is a tool, and like any other tool, it exists to perform a job. One of the most important jobs of comedy is to bring to light hypocrisy, absurdity, inequity, and injustice. Humor does this through surprise, through the juxtaposition of one idea with another, through the inversion of expected ideas.
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Look At the Clauses
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Sidebar: Inversion as a Major Comic Tool
Look for Subjects Separated from the Verb
Look for "Oh, By the Way": Asides to the Reader
Look for "Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day": Too Many Qualifiers
Sidebar: Ridiculous Excess as Comic Tool, or Gimme Extra Extra with my Extra
Look for Clashes of Style
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