Description
This work attempts to distinguish, in general terms, the ironical from from the non-ironical. It summarises the history of the concept if irony from the first appearance of the word 'cironeia' in Plato to the present day. It isolates and discusses five 'basic features' of irony: the element of 'confident awareness', the contrast of reality and appearance, the comic element, the element of detachment, and the aesthetic element. It distinguishes carefully the two main types of irony: Verbal (or Behavioural) Irony and Situational Irony. And it discusses and illustrates the principal kinds and modes: sarcasm, impersonal irony, self-disparaging irony, ingenu irony, irony of self betrayal, irony of simple incongruity, dramatic irony, irony of events, 'general irony' and romantic irony. Published in the U.K..
