Great site all about irony. Irony is one of those terms which is so misused today - mainly due to poor songwriters and screenplay writers. It's sad since irony is quite important especially when looking at the history of rhetoric. If you're interested in an interesting overview and history of irony that is fairly philosophical this paper by Paul DeMan.
BTW - only somewhat tangentally, Sivla Rhetoricæ is by far the best site on the web for studying rhetorical terms and their meaning.
Very useful references Clark.
So if a Teacher Development instructor fails to use any of the techniques he is describing in the course it isn't ironic, it is just hypocritical (or pathetic)...
Correcting people on their usage of this word will make me a very popular man!
Whoops, that's a paper largely about DeMan and not by him.
The Dictionary of Ideas has a rather good entry on irony as well.
As it has been said many times - blame Alanis Morrisette.
It's all bad luck - not irony. But I still have a hard time explaining why to my students. Rock goddesses have more power to define words than English teachers do, fortunately or not.
(And how come no one takes on Otis Redding for "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"? before that song, a dock was the area of water the boat docked in. The physcial structure was a wharf or pier. But I guess "Sittin' on the Wharf of the Bay" isn't as singable).
Just me rambling.
Although, that web page deals only with verbal irony, and it manages to be a bit dogmatic about saying verbal irony is the only type of irony - yet dramatic irony and cosmic irony are also valuable forms of irony.
The dictionary of ideas entry on irony is much better, IMHO.
One of these days I'm going to sit down and read Wayne Booth's "A Rhetoric of Irony" - then I will really know what irony truly is. It (the book, not irony obejctified) is on my shelf right now, mocking me.
Huhuhuhuhu. One has to love when one uses the phrase "go to hell" in the introductory paragraphs of a description of irony, only to have it end up at an explicitly theological point of thought such as this. Thank you kindly for the consideration; the word Irony in its common misuse drives me absolutely batshit, and I welcome any vector of clue contagion.
To Ivan:
Although, that web page deals only with verbal irony, and it manages to be a bit dogmatic about saying verbal irony is the only type of irony - yet dramatic irony and cosmic irony are also valuable forms of irony.
I said no such thing. Irony on the printed page, in song, in sign language, that's all just fine. "Dramatic irony" is made up, and "cosmic irony" is something I've never even heard of. Irony is, pure and simple, wordplay; attempting to ascribe it to other things is nothing better than apologism for a limited vocabulary. If you want an explanation of why my discussion of irony seems limited to dialogue in various media, first consider that the entire purpose of that page you've so panned as being unwilling to consider other forms of irony is to show through etymology and linguists that no such meaning has ever existed nor will such a meaning ever exist as long as I am alive . Yes, irony is limited to some form of interpersonal communication; it's hard to engage in wordplay with the cosmos, trees, or my shoes.
The phrase "dramatic irony" is almost universally the sign of a hack. The correct term for that mechanism, depending on the way in which it is used, is generally telescoping or foreshadowing, though coincidence, reciprocity or depth of error may occasionally also apply. Feel free to forget to point out karma; despite how I've used it in the article, it also fails to apply here due to denotation. I'd love, however, to know what you mean by "cosmic irony," and on what reputable source you base this phrase. Hint: Doug Harper maintains the only even half-reputable dictionary on the entire internet. Links to m-w.com or dictionary.com or reference.com will only serve to get you laughed at by people which understand the real effects of web dictionaries . I really should write that rant about the web dictionaries, but I'm so *lazy*...
John -
chill.
I meant the implication of your site was that verbal irony (which does not mean only spoken irony - that can refer to writetn irony as well, much in the same way the greek work logos means both the written and spoken word) was the only type of irony.
First off, Dramatic irony is not made up - it has a long and rich history in literature. Cosmic irony is also something that if you are unaware of it, I hate to say, you must not be very conversant with literary and rhetorical theories of irony.
Like I said, the link to the dictionary of ideas discusses all the various types of irony - verbal. dramatic, cosmic, etc. It's a good site, if a bit dry.
John - I also have dozens of books regarding literary and rhetorical theory on my shelf that discuss irony and dramtic/cosmic irony. If you want, I can post some excerpts.
But I'm not understanding why I must accept your very narrow definition of irony over the definitions given by professioal rhetoricians and literary theorists.
I agree ignorance is not linguistic drift, but neither is rigidness in definition considered linguistic certainty.
An other way to look at it is that if semiotics is more general than language traditionally taken, perhaps we ought look at such movements semiotically. But if we consider them in terms of general signifying structures, then limiting them to spoken words seems rather silly.
Ivan showed an other reason. If I read my screen play to you aloud it is irony, but as soon as it is acted it ceases to be irony? That seems an odd place to draw a difference and one has to ask if there is a good reason for this beyond the tyrrany of traditional etymology. (Which is rarely a good place to argue for proper use)
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
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