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Irony's Devices: Modes of Irony from Voltaire to Camus

Nelson, Philip A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275318943

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, French and Italian.
This study is an analysis of various devices for the production of irony used in three centuries of French literature. While irony is itself a stable concept, it appears in literature in a great variety of forms that change over time. Theorists have typically formulated a taxonomy of irony based on the properties of its production or reception while paying little attention to its temporal aspects. I intend to show that the literary and cultural influence of a particular age will determine how an author shapes and presents irony. To this end, I examine the function of three devices in various works of French literature by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Constant, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Rimbaud, Sartre, and Camus. I conclude that irony in each work reflects the literary and intellectual climate of its age. This study also contains secondary conclusions and aims. Many of the works I examine have not to my knowledge been discussed in terms of irony and this study offers a different way of looking at some prominent works of literature in this regard. I also address some problems related to the distinction of verbal and situational irony prevalent in the theoretical literature of irony. The problem arises when these two types of irony are juxtaposed in an apparently complementary relationship in which the locus of irony is either in facts from the narrated story, or in hidden semantic content within a single narrative proposition. This relationship is misleading, in my view, because it suggests that the genesis of irony, or what is “felt” to be ironic in each mode, would be different in some manner. Finally, I argue for a distinction between the presentation of irony and the employment of irony in relation to some of the works under discussion.
Jennifer Willging, Dr. (Advisor)
Karlis Racevskis, Dr. (Committee Member)
Louisa Shea, Dr. (Committee Member)
173 p.
Literature
Irony; French literature; ingenu irony; verbal and situational irony; simple and general irony

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nelson, P. A. (2010). Irony's Devices: Modes of Irony from Voltaire to Camus [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275318943

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nelson, Philip. Irony's Devices: Modes of Irony from Voltaire to Camus. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275318943.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nelson, Philip. "Irony's Devices: Modes of Irony from Voltaire to Camus." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275318943

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.