Title: Irony, Interpretive Form, and the Theory of Meaning
Abstract: The study of is obstructed by a double edged hurdle. On the one hand there exists such a diversity of things to which the name irony appropriately attaches (sarcastic, tragic, comic, romantic, sentimental, etc.) that one despairs of ever finding a unified core. But on the other hand we are so adept at recognizing ironies in particular settings that we seldom take as problematic our inability to explain the concept uniformly across this diversity. That is, we fail to address, much less answer, the question, What makes a particular content ironic? This question calls for a general query into as an interpretive form.1 The specific purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to illustrate by way of classification the diversity and familiarity of ironic phenomena and to suggest how this conjunction of properties has made the study of ironic form particularly difficult; (2) to investigate some of the essential properties of as an interpretive form, and especially the aesthetic role of binary oppositions in ironic perception; (3) to suggest the extensive contributions a theory of as interpretive form promises to the theory of meaning and intersubjective understanding.
Publication Year: 1983
Publication Date: 1983-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 25
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