Irony, tragedy, deception

TY - JOUR

T1 - Irony, tragedy, deception

AU - Currie, Gregory Paul

PY - 2024/8/16

Y1 - 2024/8/16

N2 - 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 and with a third form that has not so far been the focus of theoretical attention: hidden or deceptive irony. I show how cases where all three conditions hold suggest 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 generalisation of the idea of echoic utterance. Using the tools constructed in the first part of the paper, I focus on an exchange in Euripides’ Medea, showing how deceptive verbal irony gives rise to situations of dramatic irony and to shifts in the relative powers of conflicting characters. 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.

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 and with a third form that has not so far been the focus of theoretical attention: hidden or deceptive irony. I show how cases where all three conditions hold suggest 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 generalisation of the idea of echoic utterance. Using the tools constructed in the first part of the paper, I focus on an exchange in Euripides’ Medea, showing how deceptive verbal irony gives rise to situations of dramatic irony and to shifts in the relative powers of conflicting characters. 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.

U2 - 10.1111/ejop.12997

DO - 10.1111/ejop.12997

M3 - Article

SN - 0966-8373

JO - European Journal of Philosophy

JF - European Journal of Philosophy

ER -