Irony, Tragedy, Deception.
Two theories dominate the current debate over the nature of verbal irony: the pretence theory and the echoic theory. It is common ground in this debate that irony is sometimes both echoic and enacted through pretence; my concern here is with such cases. I ask how these features interact with each ot...
| Published in: | European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 424 - 438 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jun2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=185398363&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 185398363 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09668373 7PU jtl: European Journal of Philosophy issn: 09668373 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2025 vid: 33 iid: 2 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 185398363 10.1111/ejop.12997 ppf: 424 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Irony, Tragedy, Deception. aug: au: Currie, Gregory affil: University of York su: Irony Philosophy Ethics Metaphysics Drama sug: subj: Irony Philosophy Ethics Metaphysics Drama ab: Two theories dominate the current debate over the nature of verbal irony: the pretence theory and the echoic theory. It is common ground in this debate that irony is sometimes both echoic and enacted through pretence; my concern here is with such cases. I ask how these features interact with each other within a form of irony that has not so far been the focus of theoretical attention: hidden or deceptive irony. This enables us to see that interesting cases of verbal irony often target an outlook or point of view rather than some real or imagined prior utterance. This, in turn, suggests a move from the idea of echoic irony to irony which invokes a defective outlook. Using the tools constructed thus far, I focus on an exchange in Euripides' Medea, indicating how deceptive verbal irony gives rise to situations of dramatic irony, and provides a showcase for exhibitions of mastery by characters otherwise lacking control of their situations. I ask whether such instances of deceptive irony encourage audience members to see themselves as side‐participants in the dramas they witness. The question has an empirical aspect we are in no good position to answer; I offer a version of the idea which has at least the merit of not falling victim to obvious philosophical objections. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of European Journal of Philosophy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: European Journal of Philosophy holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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