- For free diagnostic lesson: http://www.lecturesbymarymoore.com/registration-for-trial-class.html
Registration for seminars/workshops: http://www.lecturesbymarymoore.com/registration-for-seminar.html
Website: www.lecturesbymarymoore.com
Definition:The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. Adjective: ironic or ironical.
Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized:
Etymology:From the Greek, "feigned ignorance"
Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized:
- Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.
- Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.
- Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story.
Etymology:From the Greek, "feigned ignorance"
Examples and Observations:
Pronunciation: I-ruh-nee
Also Known As: eironeia, illusio, dry mock
Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/ironyterm.htm
- Kampenfeldt: This is a grave matter, a very grave matter. It has just been reported to me that you've been expressing sentiments hostile to the Fatherland.
Schwab: What, me sir?
Kampenfeldt: I warn you, Schwab, such treasonable conduct will lead you to a concentration camp.
Schwab: But sir, what did I say?
Kampenfeldt: You were distinctly heard to remark, "This is a fine country to live in."
Schwab: Oh, no, sir. There's some mistake. No, what I said was, "This is a fine country to live in."
Kampenfeldt: Huh? You sure?
Schwab: Yes sir.
Kampenfeldt: I see. Well, in future don't make remarks that can be taken two ways.
(Raymond Huntley and Eliot Makeham in Night Train to Munich, 1940) - "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964) - "We're conceived in irony. We float in it from the womb. It's the amniotic fluid. It's the silver sea. It's the waters at their priest-like task, washing away guilt and purpose and responsibility. Joking but not joking. Caring but not caring. Serious but not serious."
(Hilary in The Old Country by Alan Bennett, 1977) - It is sometimes said that we live in an age of irony. Irony in this sense may be found, for example, all throughout The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Suppose you hear a political candidate give a terribly long speech, one that rambles on and on without end. Afterward you might turn to a friend sitting next to you, roll your eyes, and say, 'Well, that was short and to the point, wasn't it?' You are being ironic. You are counting on your friend to turn the literal meaning of your expression, to read it as exactly the opposite of what your words actually mean. . . .
"When irony works, it helps to cement social bonds and mutual understanding because the speaker and hearer of irony both know to turn the utterance, and they know that the other one knows they will turn the utterance. . . .
"Irony is a kind of winking at each other, as we all understand the game of meaning reversal that is being played."
(Barry Brummett, Techniques of Close Reading. Sage, 2010) - "Irony has always been a primary tool the under-powered use to tear at the over-powered in our culture. But now irony has become the bait that media corporations use to appeal to educated consumers. . . . It's almost an ultimate irony that those who say they don't like TV will sit and watch TV as long as the hosts of their favorite shows act like they don't like TV, either. Somewhere in this swirl of droll poses and pseudo-insights, irony itself becomes a kind of mass therapy for a politically confused culture. It offers a comfortable space where complicity doesn't feel like complicity. It makes you feel like you are counter-cultural while never requiring you to leave the mainstream culture it has so much fun teasing. We are happy enough with this therapy that we feel no need to enact social change."
(Dan French, review of The Daily Show, 2001) - "Alanis Morissette's 'Ironic,' in which situations purporting to be ironic are merely sad, random, or annoying (a traffic jam when you're late, a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break) perpetuates widespread misuse of the word and outrages irony prescriptivists. It is of course ironic that 'Ironic' is an unironic song about irony. Bonus irony: 'Ironic' is widely cited as an example of how Americans don't get irony, despite the fact that Alanis Morissette is Canadian."
(Jon Winokur, The Big Book of Irony. St. Martin's, 2007) - "An ironic man, with his sly stillness, and ambuscading ways, more especially an ironic young man, from whom it is least expected, may be viewed as a pest to society."
(Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh, 1833-34) - "It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word."
(William Zinsser) - "Direct expression, with no tricks, gimmickry, or irony, has come to be interpreted ironicallybecause the default interpretive apparatus says, 'He can't really mean THAT!' When a culture becomes ironic about itself en masse, simple statements of brutal fact, simple judgments of hate or dislike become humorous because they unveil the absurdity, 'friendliness,' and caution of normal public expression. It's funny because it's true. Honestly. We're all upside down now."
(R. Jay Magill, Jr., Chic Ironic Bitterness. Univ. of Michigan Press, 2007) - The Lighter Side of Irony
Rachel Berry: Mr. Schuester, do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to give the lead solo in "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" to a boy in a wheelchair?
Artie Abrams: I think Mr. Schue is using irony to enhance the performance.
Rachel Berry: There's nothing ironic about show choir!
(Pilot episode of Glee, 2009)
Woman: I started riding these trains in the forties. Those days a man would give up his seat for a woman. Now we're liberated and we have to stand.
Elaine: It's ironic.
Woman: What's ironic?
Elaine: This, that we've come all this way, we have made all this progress, but you know we've lost the little things, the niceties.
Woman: No, I mean what does ironic mean?
Elaine: Oh.
("The Subway," Seinfeld, Jan. 8 1992)
"I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it."
(Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons)
"Math was my worst subject because I could never persuade the teacher that my answers were meant ironically."
(Calvin Trillin)
Lyn Cassady: It's okay, you can "attack" me.
Bob Wilton: What's with the quotation fingers? It's like saying I'm only capable of ironicattacking or something.
(The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009)
Pronunciation: I-ruh-nee
Also Known As: eironeia, illusio, dry mock
Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/ironyterm.htm