Irony

Je tiens à remercier les organismes suivants pour leur soutien financier : le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (programme de bourses d'études supérieures) et le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (programme de bourses de maîtrise en recherche). Quelques remerciements un peu plus personnels, maintenant. À tous ceux d'abord qui m'ont aidé en me disant « l'ironie, bien évidemment, c'est ... » en m'adressant leur thousand dollar face: que leur fidèle coopération soit ici rappelée. À tous ceux ensuite à qui j'écris, que leur connivence reçoive ma reconnaissance: celui qui raconte avec un accent pas possible les péripéties de Ethel & Doris; celle qui m'a empêché de devenir un phagocyte fini et m'a permis de comprendre ce que je disais; celui qui a pu dire « tout au début », qui sait voir dans ma recherche de la source des énoncés une quête de l'origine, qui m'a appris à faire flèche de tout bois; celles avec qui je dis « on en jette-tu des affaires! » ou encore « je devais avoir quelque chose à vivre là-dedans »; celle qui baptise le voisin « Hercule» et qui m'a appris les rudiments du sous-entendu; celui qui dit « tant qu'à faire» et qui m'a appris à (bien) travailler et à finir ce que je commençais. Merci. Ironie 14 Lire 18 Chapitre 1 : De la déception, de l'échec 21 Une intrigue décevante 23 Tension dramatique du personnage 25 Tension dramatique et lecture 29 Un narrateur non fiable De la focalisation 31 Limites de l'omniscience 32 Les dominos 39 Personnalité de narrateur 42 Vers la subjectivité métafictionnelle 45 Chapitre II : Le métafictionnel : autoréflexivité et discours sur le discours De l'échec au miroir É checs interprétatifs Le miroir, enfin Chapitre III : Narration et métadiscours : quelqu'un est au piano Un narrateur en défaut de discrétion Une personne narrative: les traces de la subjectivité du narrateur Régie, rythme, ordre Opinions et savoirs: monde diégétique, personnages et situations Opinions et savoirs: monde extra-diégétique, sapience et encyclopédie Rapport d'adresse: régie et anticipation de lecture Le discours immédiat ou la duplicité de la connivence Chapitre IV : L'habitude du cumul L'amusement L'encyclopédie Conclusion Bibliographie [ ... ] la sonnerie discrète de l'ascenseur fit savoir qu'on était arrivés. Passons sur les nouveaux couloirs qui débouchèrent, cette fois, sur une entrée bien différente de celle par où Max avait tenté de s'enfuir. (AP : 136) Et, bien que celui-ci, nous l'avons dit, n'eût jamais été ce que l'on appelle un séducteur, jamais été sensible aux appels plus ou moins subliminaux qu'on pouvait lui adresser car jamais assez sûr de lui pour les considérer comme tels, il lui sembla que Doris le regardait plus précisément, lui souriait avec plus d'acuité.

Most critics of contemporary literature have reached a consensus that what was once called " postmodernism " is over and that its signature modes—metafiction and irony—are on the wane. This is not the case, however, with videogames. In recent years, a number of self-reflexive games have appeared, exemplified by Davey Wreden's The Stanley Parable (2013), an ironic game about games. When self-awareness migrates form print to screen, however, something happens. If metafiction can be characterized by how it draws attention to its materiality—the artificiality of language and the construction involved in acts of representation—The Stanley Parable draws attention to the digital, procedural materiality of videogames. Following the work of Alexander R. Galloway and Ian Bogost, I argue that the self-reflexivity of The Stanley Parable is best understood in terms of action and procedure, as metaproceduralism. This essay explores the legacies of United States metafiction in videogames, suggesting that though postmodernism might be over, its lessons are important to remember for confronting the complex digital realities of the twenty-first century. If irony may be ebbing in fiction, it has found a vital and necessary home in videogames and we underestimate its power to challenge the informatic, algorithmic logic of cultural production in the digital age to our detriment.

شیعر و پەخشان وەک هەموو هونەرەکانی دیکە بۆ پەیوەندی لەگەڵ بەردەنگی خۆیان پێویستیان بە چەند کەرەستەیەک هەیە؛ یەکێک لەم کەرەستانە، درکەیە. هەر لە کۆنەوە پسپۆڕانی ئەدەبی ئاماژەیان بە کارتێکەریی درکە لەسەر شێوازی ئاخافتنی ئاسایی و شیعر کردووە و وەک شێوازێکی دەربڕینی ئەدەبی پێناسەیان کردووە. لەم وتارەدا، درکە و جۆرەکانی لە شیعری کلاسیکدا بە شێوازێکی نوێ شرۆڤە کراوە. درکە، وشە، دەستەوشە، یان ڕستەیەکه‌ بێژەر بە شێوازێک بەکاری ‌دێنێت کە مەبەست لە دەربڕینی، واتای نهێنییە. زۆرێک لە واتاکان ڕەنگە ئەگەر بە شێوازی ئاسایی دەرببڕدرێن؛ زۆر کارتێکەر نەبن. درکە واتاکان بە شێوازی هونەری دەگەیەنێت و ئەم تایبەتمەندییەش بێ‌گومان لە زانستی ڕەوانبێژییەوە سەرچاوە دەگرێت. شوێنی سەرهەڵدانی درکە، ئاخافتنی ئاسایی خەڵکە و لە پەیوەندییەکانی ڕۆژانەی ئاخێوەرانی کۆمەڵگادا ڕۆڵی بووە و لە کات و شوێنی تایبەتدا بۆ گەیاندن و ئاگادارکردنەوە بە مەبەستی جۆراوجۆر بەکار هاتووە. درکە ئاوێنەی فەرهەنگە و ئاستی ڕۆشنبیریی نەتەوەیی دەردەخات؛ لای هەموو ئاخێوەرانی زمانی دایکی بەکار هاتوووە، واتە مۆری کۆمەڵی پێوەیە و مانەوە و نەمانەوەی پەیوەندی بە بڕیاری کۆمەڵەوە هەیە. لە ڕووی دەروونییەوە درکە کارتێکەریی بەهێزی لەسەر ئاخێوەرانی هەر نەتەوەیەک هەیە؛ جاری وایە هاندەرە و جاری واشە هیوابەخش و ساڕێژکەری ئازارە دەروونییەکانە. لەم توێژینەوەیەدا هەوڵ ­دراوە جیاوازیی درکە و ڕازەکانی خواستن، خوازە و پەند تاوتوێ بکرێت و پاشان لایەنی جوانیناسی‌ درکە لە شیعری کلاسیکدا شرۆڤە بکرێت. ئەم توێژینەوەیە بە شێوازی وەسـفی–شیکارانە درکە و جۆرەکانی لە شیعری کلاسیکدا تاوتوێ کردووە. هەوێنی سەرەکی ئەنجامی ئەم لێکۆڵینەوەیە ئەم پرسیارانە بووە: هۆکاری سەرەکیی سەرهەڵدانی درکە لە ئەدەبیاتدا چییە؟ بۆچی بێژەر ناڕاستەوخۆ وتەکانی دەردەبڕێت؟ بەو پرسیارانەوە دەچینە ناو مژاری سەرەکیی وتارەکەوە.

Punk. The sound of the streets, the music of protest, the shouts and screams of the disadvantaged and oppressed, the anguished howl of the underdog, the unclean and the unworthy. Political, agitational, provocative, subversive, awkward, uncompromising, angry and aggressive. Descriptions and definitions of punk – the subculture, the music, the fashion, the lifestyle, the language and the politics – inevitably revolve around stereotypes and generalizations. Consensus, where it can be found, tends to exemplify those same regularly repeated clichés, and important elements become further hidden from view. The use of humour in punk – lyrically, within musical phrasing, song construction and live performance and in the graphic language of punk sleeves, fanzines and posters – is often overlooked. This article comprises two parts. This first part seeks to outline the ways in which humour – through rhetorical codes and strategies including satire, pun, metaphor and metonymy, hyperbole, invective, irony, sarcasm, allegory, exaggeration, parody, repetition, self-deprecation, profanity and the embrace of the absurd or ridiculous were and are central to an understanding of punk language and practice. Within part two of this article, to be published in Punk & Post Punk, further emphasis will be placed on the visual identity of punk and hardcore groups, and on the strategies employed by designers to reflect and support punk’s satirical core.

The category of sabi is one of the most distinctive forms of Japanese aesthetics. A spiritual love for age, solitude and melancholia, it is central to practices like tea ceremony and haikai poetry: however, a formal description of its character is often deemed impossible. The Japanese philosopher Onishi Yoshinori (1888 - 1959) was however convinced that sabi was a complex but coherent category, and that a philosophical approach to sabi in Japanese poetry could reveal in its structure a mixture of affirmation and negation that brought it close to Romantic irony. Together with yugen and aware , sabi is one of the three Asian aesthetic categories proposed by Onishi ’s intercultural system as counterparts to the European forms of beautiful, sublime and comic. In this essay we turn to his 1940 vol ume Fugaron , still mostly ignored by Western bibliography, to discuss the outlines of Onishi ’s analysis of sabi , its background, its difficulties and intellectual potential.

Ironic language is typically more difficult to process and interpret than a literal equivalent, hence is assumed to serve several social and emotional functions not achieved by literal communication (such as politeness or introducing humor). Several factors may influence emotional responses to irony, such as the perspective from which the utterance is encountered (e.g., speaker vs. target) and the tone of voice (prosody) used. To examine these issues, we conducted two event-related brain potential (ERP) studies in which participants listened to scenarios describing emotional responses to either literal criticism or ironic criticism. Ironic criticism was delivered with either natural or ironic prosody. Scenarios either described an emotional response the speaker expected to elicit from the target (speaker perspective), or the target’s actual emotional response (target perspective). Expected or actual emotional responses were described as either “amused” (Experiment 1) or “hurt” (Experiment 2). ERPs were calculated time-locked to the end of the ironic or literal statements, and to the audio presentation of the critical emotion words. Results showed a significant effect of perspective for amused conditions, reflected by a larger late posterior positivity for the target than speaker conditions, indicating amused responses are more expected from speaker than target perspective. This effect was not seen for hurt conditions, suggesting these are equally expected from target and speaker perspectives. The data also revealed a more negative-going ERP waveform specifically for ironic criticism delivered with ironic prosody, reflecting prosodic processing. This suggests prosody may be able to speed the identification of irony.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the Hegelian interpretation of the notion of “irony” in the light of its evolution thorough the Berlin courses and in a comparison with the edition of the Ästhetik published by Hotho. The analysis of the last course of the 1828-29 is of particular importance, because there the notion of irony, which traditionally appears to be harshly criticized by Hegel, is taken as a decisive moment for the very concept of art. In this course, Hegel explicitly distinguishes between a “practical irony”, which he continues to criticize, and an irony that we could define as “artistic” or “aesthetic”, which he instead assumes as a significant moment in the constitution of the ideal. The discussion of this course can lead to a redefinition of Hegel’s interpretation of irony as it has been established by much of the critical tradition.

Hip-hop has long been considered political: as Chuck D. famously observed "rap music is the CNN of the ghetto". Moving beyond clearly political themes, slogans, and acts of alterity at the heart of Hip-Hop, this essay employs the work of the rap-artist Eminem to draw out and identify a further way in which those of us engaged in political analysis might productively conceive of the genre as being political. Drawing upon the European and American existentialist traditions, this essay suggests that the artist's irony, hyperbole, and theatricality are constituents of a political worldview that recognizes both the need for self-creation and the pressure, social, political, and artistic, that make this quest for self-creation both an endless struggle and an opportunity for a vivified care of the self. The aim here is not to seek to valorise the rap genre by suggesting that it might offer insight into the political, but rather to point to the ways in which the cultural analysis of politics, and the political analysis of culture, might move beyond the rote by paying attention to the ethical, political, artistic, and philosophical nuances of the object of study.

The chief aim of this essay is to posit a well-known Mesopotamian royal and divine epithet, ušumgallu "great dragon," as the source behind Ezekiel's enigmatic description of Pharaoh in 29.3, hattannīn haggādôl, "the great dragon." This relationship sheds new light and meaning on an old problem: why does Ezekiel refer to Pharaoh as a dragon? Rather than viewing this prophetic expression as a pejorative, the cognate evidence argues for the converse by rooting it in an enduring tradition of regal titles. Replicating Akkadian ušumgallu (Sumerian UŠUM.GAL) as efficiently as possible and drawing upon Israelite cosmological history (viz. Gen 1.21a), Ezekiel feigned including Pharaoh within a venerable, long line of Mesopotamian kings and deities to receive this title. Instead, and as is characteristic of Ezekiel's rhetoric, he upended the putative associations of the "great dragon," thereby exposing its true subordinate position under the hegemony of YHWH

The Magical Ironist. On "Shamanic Disease" by Jacek Hugo-Bader
The purpose of this paper is to analyze Jacek Hugo-Bader's novel reportage "Shamanic Disease" ("Szamańska choroba") understood as a blend of reportage and the conventions of magical realism. By utilizing ironic self-creation of the narrator in the reportage, Hugo-Bader's discussion of belief in terms of problematization and thematization rather than as a fact-finding process through research does not violate the referential pact. The case study is a part of the discussion on both the literary reportage, which boldly combines the elements of journalism with licentia poetica, and on Melchior Wańkowicz's "extension of the convention" of the reportage genre in Poland. In addition to the categories of realistic fiction and fantastic fiction-understood in the context of non-fiction-this paper will discuss a third element: magical fiction, which will be related to contemporary theories of performative ethnography.

Este artículo de reflexión, derivado de una tesis sobre la enseñanza de la comprensión de textos argumentativos irónicos, aborda, a la luz del interaccionismo sociodiscursivo, la posible arquitectura textual carnavalizada que se desprende de un corpus de 117 columnas de opinión de Daniel Samper Ospina publicadas entre 2014 y 2016 en la Revista Semana (Colombia). Desde un interés hermenéutico y perspectivas pragmalingüísticas para el estudio de la ironía verbal, se identifican rasgos de carnaval bajtiniano en los tres niveles de la infraestructura textual (gracias al juego con la dispositio argumentativa tradicional y al travestimiento de géneros), la textualización (mediante inversiones a los principios neogriceanos de Levinson, según el Grupo de la Ironía, Alicante, Lengua Española, Griale) y la responsabilidad enunciativa (como fruto de la inserción de enunciadores absurdos que enmascaran la función locutor). Esto refuerza la concepción de la ironía como dispositivo textual carnavalizante del decir, sus modos, sus voces y sus estructuras.

We report an eye-tracking study in which we investigate the on-line processing of written irony. Specifically, participants’ eye movements were recorded while they read sentences which were either intended ironically, or non-ironically, and subsequent text which contained pronominal reference to the ironic (or non-ironic) phrase. Results showed longer reading times for ironic comments compared to a non-ironic baseline, suggesting that additional processing was required in ironic compared to non-ironic conditions. Reading times for subsequent pronominal reference indicated that for ironic materials, both the ironic and literal interpretations of the text were equally accessible during on-line language comprehension. This finding is most in line with predictions of the graded salience hypothesis, which, in conjunction with the retention hypothesis, states that readers represent both the literal and ironic interpretation of an ironic utterance.

Kierkegaard Az irónia fogalmáról című doktori disszertációjának sokszor idézett záró passzusában röviden elemzi a humor jelenségét, elhatárolva azt az értekezés tárgyát adó iróniától. A humor fogalmát a szkepszishez, a bűnösséghez, az istenemberi jelleghez – egyáltalában a vallási jelenségéhez köti. Kierkegaard ekkor már évek óta foglalkozik a humor kérdésével, naplóbejegyzéseiben rendre visszatérnek a humor, az irónia és a paródia osztályozási problémái. A humor paradigmatikus alakja számára Johann Georg Hamann, akinek számos megállapítását gondolja tovább, és jó néhány szóképét egyszerűen át is emeli. A tanulmányban azt mutatom be, hogy mennyiben volt példaértékű Kierkegaard számára Hamann humorban gazdag gondolkodás- és írásmódja, illetve milyen mértékben hatott a német bölcselő Kierkegaard sajátosan elhatárolt humor-koncepciójára. Arra keresem a választ, hogy milyen módon támaszkodott a filozófuselőd gondolataira, trópusaira a koraromantika irónia- és vicc-felfogásának bírálatakor, illetve milyen történeti és vallási érvényességet tulajdonított a humor jelenségének.

In her series of short stories, entitled Héroïnes, Claude Cahun offers a re-reading of several key female figures such as Sappho, Salmacis, Judith, Salome and Eve and thus re-interprets and rewrites their stories under the sign of the so-called New Woman who would become an icon of the in-between-war-period. It is precisely through irony and derision that, in Cahun's version of the mythological Héroïnes, female psychology becomes infused with new meaning. The rewriting of these symbols of femininity is not without a considerable charge of parody. Despite the author's peripheral position to the avant-garde movement, at least at the beginning of the 1920s, the link to Surrealist poetics is clearly visible in these Héroïnes which are so different from others. 1. Die Zwischenkriegszeit im Zeichen des Auf-und Umbruchs 1925 erscheinen sporadisch in zwei wichtigen französischen Literaturzeitschrif-ten, genauer gesagt im Mercure de France und im Journal littéraire, Novellen in unterschiedlicher Länge – zumeist aber konzis und prägnant, alle gezeichnet Claude Cahun –, die in den ersten Jahren der Zwischenkriegszeit aller Wahr-scheinlichkeit nach als Zyklus konzipiert waren. Wieder einmal scheint sich an der Schnittstelle von auslaufender und sich neu manifestierender Bewegung – von einer Peripherie zur anderen – die Idee von der Gleichzeitigkeit des Un-gleichzeitigen zu bewahrheiten. Denn zur selben Zeit publiziert Breton sein Erstes Manifest des Surrealismus und avanciert definitiv zur Identifikationsfigur der neuen Bewegung. Während sich Cahuns literarische Texte auf den ersten Blick in eine spätsymbolistische Tradition einreihen, 1 signalisiert Bretons theoretisch-poetologischer Text den offiziellen Auftakt zur surrealistischen Avantgarde. Unterschiedlicher könnten sich Zentrum und Peripherie einer neuen literarischen Bewegung nicht gestalten. Daß die literarhistorischen Modelle nicht immer ganz so einfach auf die einzelnen Autorinnen und Autoren der je-weiligen Epoche umzulegen sind und sich auch nicht auf eine bestimmte Zeit-periode beschränken, wird sich im zweiten Teil meiner Ausführungen zeigen. Daß gerade die Autorinnen dieser Zeit sich trotz gewisser Verbindungen zum surrealistischen Zentrum nur sehr schwer kategorisieren lassen, hängt mit unter

Definitional issues aside, Dylan's responses were clearly ironic. The most obvious indicators were how quickly, when pressed, Dylan changed his initial answer to the equally arbitrary 142, and how he took literally a question meant impressionistically. Both suggest the disconnect between what he said (the number) and what he meant (his disdain for the question). The laughter from some of those present likewise suggests irony's power to create and reveal an in-group and an out-group; just as the reporter's embarrassing struggle to pin down a number he does not realise is irrelevant suggests a cruelty with which irony is sometimes associated. For those opposed to what they see as the pernicious ubiquity of irony in (post)modernity, Dylan's mid-sixties insouciance captures much they find objectionable, especially concerning its negative impact upon democratic life and politics. In addition to its supposed divisiveness and elitism, critics might see in the exchange the corrosion of a trust and reciprocity central to democratic politics. Irony is likewise seen as promoting a dissimulation antithetical to public deliberation, and a lack of seriousness that makes hard decisions and resolute action impossible. Here, however, I will argue that Dylan's embrace of irony offers a counterargument to such claims. The argument is not that irony's critics are entirely mistaken, simply that they underestimate its value as a political aesthetic and T&F PROOFS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

The Bengali ‘obscene’ (aślīl) poetry of the Hungry Generation is heavily pregnant with ‘dirty’ sexual imagery. In particular, the poem “Prachanda Baidyutik Chutar” and its English translation “Stark Electric Jesus” (1964) by the Hungryalist Malay Raychoudhuri concern the description of the female ‘sexual body’, male masturbation and bodily fluids. The use of a Bengali ‘medical’ vocabulary for portraying the ‘sexual body’ achieves a double operation of ‘sanitization’ of the semantic sphere of sex, unsuitable subject of poetry, and of ‘ironic inversion’ where the low dirty content embodied by masturbation and sexual activity attains the higher status of poetry, while downplaying the overtly mechanical Bengali lexicon of medical sciences. My attempt at re-translating some controversial passages of this poem helps laying out some methodological principles for developing a ‘contextual’ practice of translation in resistance to traditional notions such as accuracy and faithfulness.

Keywords: obscenity; sexual body; masturbation; medical lexicon; sanitization.

On the often overlooked irony in Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel” (which is not the exhaustion of possible expression) and “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” (which is not a death-of-the-author-birth-of-the-reader allegory). The narrator of "The Library of Babel" claims that it contains everything it is possible to express in all languages, yet the play with the library's character set (twenty-two lowercase letters, space, comma, and period - so we are told) shows that it is incapable even of expressing this brief story. The narrator of "Pierre Menard" is tied, through several allusions, to a prominent Nazi that Borges had elsewhere criticized - which demonstrates that his insistence that meaning be tied to the context of reading is meant as an implicit critique or deconstruction of reader-response criticism in the style of Barthes or Jauss.

Soren Kierkegaard Lucinda-kritikájának elemzéséből kiindulva azt vizsgálom meg, hogy miben különbözött Schlegel és Kierkegaard iróniával kapcsolatos trópus-használata, milyen metaforák mentén határolódott el a dán filozófus német elődjétől. A hegeli bírálati pontok számbavételével igyekszem árnyalni a Paul de Man-féle interpretációt is. Kierkegaard és Schlegel összehasonlítása során külön hangsúlyt fektetek az éghajlat, a meztelenség, és a restség alakzataira, illetve azok revelációval és szubverzióval kapcsolatos szerepére.

CONTENTS

October 17th, 2011 [pages 6-15]
I
Persecution and the Art of Writing or Towards a Hermeneutics of Suspicion
from interpretation of the meaning between lines to explanation of the transcendental effect of forms

1. ‘PERSECUTION’: from the threat of philosophical truth to the subversion of the verisimilitude of fiction

2. ‘THE ART OF WRITING’: protection for the author and selective communication with accomplices

i. The protective output: the censor’s impasse and authority outwitted

ii. The communicational output: separation of readerships and selective training in the subversive knowledge

3. The ‘ART OF READING’: from interpretation of the implicit message to explanation of the transcendental revolution in forms

i. The ‘interpretation’ stage: moving from the explicit sense to the implicit intended meaning—criteria for recognizing and reconstructing the concealed message.
  * First stage: criteria for recognizing anomalies that give grounds to suspect second intentions
  * Second stage: reconstruction criteria allowing the implicit meaning to be established

ii. The stage of ‘explanation’: from the sociology of knowledge to transcendental stylistics

October 18th, 2011 [pages 16-31]
II
The Latin Erotic Elegy and the Case of Propertius
from subversion of the Augustan imperial ethos to the metaphysics of dissimulatio

1. Introduction. From the elegiac paradox (irrepressible passion-love in an interruptive texture) to an art of writing between the lines

2. A historico-literary context of substitution: the Roman erotic elegy between poetic dissimulatio and Augustan auctoritas

i. Literary elements that contribute to ‘recognition’ of the elegiac art of writing: from literature as imitatio to irony as dissimulatio

ii. Political elements that contribute to the ‘reconstruction’ of the implied message: elegiac values versus the values of Augustan auctoritas—Propertius’ authorial situation vis-à-vis the vates, Horace and Virgil.

3. Interpretation: an amatory façade for the subversion of imperial values—progressive dissimulatio in Propertius’ writing

i. Propertius’ independence in the Monobiblos: from amatory etiology to the sphragis of political resistance

ii. Propertius’ precautions in Maecenas’ circle, or the art of writing in Books 2 and 3: from the amatory mask to the mask of literary rivalry
  * The love mask: frontal subversion of Augustan moral reforms and marriage laws sheltered in the imperative of ‘irregular elegiac passion’
  * The mask of literary rivalry in the programmatic elegies: from urban recusatio, the refusal to write epic on national themes, to subversion of the Augustan ideals expressed in the official poetry of Horace and Virgil.
  -Subversion of the imperial ideals in Virgil’s poetry: mocking the claims of the Aeneid. Propertius 2.34.
  -Subversion of Horace’s public stances in the Odes. Propertius 3.1-2.
  * The final mask: the use of hyperbole, bad taste and mythological harmonics to subvert the political values and legitimated triumphs of the imperial authority

iii. Propertius under Augustus’ eye: the final dissimulatio in Book 4—subversion by deliberate bad taste and allusion by mythological harmonics.

4. Explanation: from the counterworld of the elegiac fiction to the metaphysics of dissimulatio

i. The sociology of discourse: the counterworld of the elegiac fiction, or the Dionysiac inversion of Apollonian values

ii. Transcendental poetics: the metaphysics of dissimulatio


October 19th, 2011 [pages 32-56]
III
The Love Poetry of the Provençal Troubadours
from the sensualism of the gai saber to the synthesis of sound against the totalitarianism of vision

1. Introduction. A paradoxical contrast – the monotony of the motives of idealized love versus the originality of the couplings of rhyme – as promotion of the queen in a game of warfare

2. A historico-literary context of substitution. Troubadour joi: from the gai saber of Occitan dispersion to the linguistic joculum of the couplings of rhyme

i. The philosophico-discursive side: the naturalistic sensualism of the gai saber vs. Christian orthodox ontotheology

ii. The poetico-literary aspect: the promotion of musical joculum in the couplings of rhyme

3. Interpretation. The naturalistic sensualism of the gai saber: a provocative defense of ‘sensory passion’ in a ‘world governed by chance’

i. The trobar prim (naturau e cortes) of William of Aquitaine (1071-1126): from the paradox of a ‘double-faced poet’ to the game of con in a world of chance
  * The contradictions of a ‘double-faced poet.’ A reading in context
  * The natural register in the companion songs: a pornographic imaginary behind the explicit defense of natural passion.
  * The invention of the ‘courtly love’ register: a confession of unsatisfied desire and submission to the domna as a parody of the new ideals of monastic asceticism.
  * The pseudo-metaphysical register in Farai un vers de dreit nien: an ‘Enigma about Nothingness’ as a parody of the Hyperessence, or immanent naturalism against negative theology.

* Conclusion regarding the interwoven registers at the origin of the trobar: the promotion of passion-love in the immanence of the world behind the defensive façade of courtly love.

ii. Marcabrú’s trobar brau: the paradox of a moralizing but obscene condemnation of love as a parody of preachers that awakens desire.

iii. The courtly trobar or the classic canso in anamorphosis: from confession of a belligerent confrontation over sensory passion to staging of the experience of joi

iv. Arnaut Daniel’s trobar clus: concealment and final communication of the gai saber in the arts of the miglior fabbro del parlar materno
  * The trobar leu and the arrival of the trobar clus: the case of Arnaut Daniel’s trobar ric.
  * The concealment of meanings in the trobar clus.
  * Lexicon and images: the dir strano e bello or the subversion of the metaphorical order
  * Linguistic Marranism and barbarolexia: the Provençal parody of official Latin
  * Impossible images and dream allegories: subversion of the metaphorical order.
  * Verbal music: from the sensory materialization of the joi of the world to the experience of pleasure in the arts of delay
  * Daniel’s characteristic consonance: the song of nature as an invitation to joi
  * The cobla ‘dissoluta’: the arts of amatory delay, intensification of desire by deferred satisfaction, in the sensory field of rhyme. (Sim fos amors de joi donar tan larga).
  * The last stage of the trobar (Lo ferm voler qu’el cor m’intra): linguistic, sexual and metaphysical dissemination in the ‘sestina.’
-The involution of the sestina as the final stage of experimentation in the arts of delay of the trobar (mot refranh, rims estrams, permutations).
-The linguistic dissemination of the words in the poem: from the banal motifs of courtly love to the martial imagery and sensory experience of the pleasures of delay
-The sexual dissemination of images: the pornographic double meaning behind the mask of courtly love
-Metaphysical dissemination in the formal device: the imperative of a ‘game of chance’

4. Explanation. From the foundation of the space of modern lyrical fiction to the synthesis of sound against the totalitarianism of vision

i. Sociology of discourse: the forms of meaning of the trobar as the foundation for the sphere of modern lyrical fiction – from concealment of enjoyment in form to promotion of independent enjoyment of form

ii. Emancipation of the synthesis of hearing versus the totalitarianism of vision and the diurnal image
  * The oral forms of meaning of the Romance tongues versus the written Latinitas
  * From reversal of the hierarchy between material sound and spiritual light to the synthesis of listening vs. the epistemology of vision
  * The significant detail of the ‘alba’: explicit defense of natural passion in the context of a musical and nocturnal perception that turns away from the diurnal vision of the opponents of joi

* Coda. A detective’s art of reading of selective application

While an emerging group of scholars has made productive inroads investigating emotion’s role in politics, the way in which scholars face these emotions remains an issue in need of updated study. While no article can provide definitive conclusions on such a topic, the current effort posits one narrative device that IR scholars might utilise in order to cope with the realities of politics – irony. Irony is useful in that it allows us a ‘critical distance’ from our subject without requiring us to abandon our emotions. The article briefly reviews several scholarly positions or practices, from objectivism to verstehen, which confront, quarantine or accommodate scholarly emotionality in varied ways, before articulating the benefits of irony. It proposes two forms of ironical study drawn, respectively, from the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard Rorty.

The paper discusses the relation between Luigi Pirandello's L'umorismo and Umberto Eco's and Richard Rorty's diverging versions of irony. The article highlights genealogical, as well as rhizomatic relations between modernist humour and postmodernist irony. By tracing one of its roots in Pirandello's text, the paper aims to problematise the often over-simplified notion of postmodernist irony as meaningless playfulness and detachment.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) now spans dozens of films, TV shows, and web series, dating back to 2008’s Iron Man. The enormous success of that film provided a sort of template that Marvel has followed almost to the letter in most of its successors, especially in regards to its flippant tone and wise-cracking main character. As Stephen Kearse observes, humor has become one of the defining characteristics of this immensely-popular and long-running media franchise: “As Marvel has produced more sequels and standalone spinoffs, comedy has become more essential to introducing characters and giving the universe a sense of history.” As in Iron Man, this humor often takes the form of ironic or sarcastic remarks given at a rapid-fire pace by the main characters; regardless of how dire or incredible the situation may seem, someone is always ready to lighten the mood with a quick joke or muttered aside.

In this essay, I plan to focus on irony in the MCU, especially as manifested by Tony Stark / Iron Man (who is portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr. in all of the films). Whether facing a personal crisis or world-threatening event, there is no situation Tony cannot bring himself to laugh at, in an attempt to either reduce the stakes or bolster his own courage to face it. Accordingly, there is very little he ever comes to take seriously, resulting in a detached, ironic attitude that permeates the rest of the franchise. The series’ reliance on humor is, I believe, symptomatic of a larger, and very worrying, trend in modern society to look upon all things supernatural or fantastic with skepticism and wry bemusement. Just as Iron Man—and the rest of the Avengers—cannot face a dangerous or terrifying situation without trying to diminish it, through irony, into something less serious or real, so, too, do modern humans often respond to encounters with the Good, Beautiful, or Truthful.

André Gide was among the French intellectuals who, in the beginning of the 20 th century, attempted a completely new approach to the Greek myth. A typical example of his work is Thésée, a novel where he practically de-mystifies the ancient legend in order to project a different view of the hero and his deeds, to contest the ways in which the myth itself was perceived by the ancients and mostly by his contemporaries. In his work the main character stands before us alone, as a plain human being, deprived of his aura and glory; what is at stake here, though, is not so much the modernization of the myth but, rather, its rationalization. For Gide starts from a point of view that can be described at least as ironic-using cynicism and pragmatism throughout his novel-only to exalt the hero's human nature. Based on his firm philosophical beliefs, Gide appropriated a myth in order to create not just art but also a new mythology.

Anlässlich des 15-jährigen Bestehens des kelten römer museums manching startete am 2. Juni 2021 das Quiz »Professor von Eulenschnurz – Jäger des verworrenen Quatsches«. Die Besucherinnen und Besucher hatten Gelgenheit, bis zum 12. September 2021 am humoristischen Suchspiel teilzunehmen. +++ Hintergrund war ein Besuch des fiktiven Professors von Eulenschnurz (Bayerische Fernuniversität Hintertupfing), der die Dauerausstellung des Manchinger Museums gehörig auf den Kopf stellte – mit wahnwitzigen Ergebnissen! Das Quiz präsentierte acht Eulenschnurzsche Theorien zu Funden der Kelten- und Römerzeit aus Manching und Oberstimm, von einer gut belegten Familienpizza bis hin zu einem abgefahrenen Muped-Lenker. Aufgabe der Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer war es, die beschriebenen Objekte im Museum zu finden und ihre tatsächlichen Funktionen zu erraten. +++ Das Suchspiel lag in Form eines liebevoll illustrierten Heftes vor und richtete sich an Menschen ab 10 Jahren. Zu gewinnen waren ökologisch und fair produzierte T-Shirts, Turnbeutel und Tragetaschen, auf denen die keltischen Achsnägel mit Raubvogelköpfen aus dem Oppidum von Manching abgebildet sind.

Η παρούσα μελέτη προτείνει την διαλεκτική σχέση μεταξύ της πιεροτικής και της προφητικής ποιητικής στην ποίηση και την πεζογραφία του Ρώμου Φιλύρα. Συνεπώς, η ανάγνωση αυτή εισηγείται μια νέα θεώρηση του έργου του Φιλύρα, το οποίο στις κριτικές και ιστοριογραφικές αποτιμήσεις της περιόδου αντιμετωπίζεται κατά κύριο λόγο ως προδρομικό της συμβολιστικής ποίησης και του μεσοπολεμικού κλαυσίγελου. Η εργασία ξεκινά με την εκ του σύνεγγης ανάγνωση του ποιήματος “Ο Πιερότος” (1922). Δίνεται έτσι ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στα προσωδιακά και μορφικά χαρακτηριστικά του ποιήματος και καταδεικνύεται η ειρωνική υπονόμευση της εξανθρωπιστικής πρόθεσης τού λυρικού υποκειμένου. Στη συνέχεια, η πιεροτική ποιητική, αλλά και οι ημερολογιακές σημειώσεις παρεμφερούς θεματικής από την περίοδο εγκλεισμού του Φιλύρα στο Δρομοκαΐτειο, πλαισιώνονται με την παράλληλη εξέταση του δοκιμίου "Το γέλιο: Δοκίμιο για τη σημασία του κωμικού" του Henri Bergson  και της νουβέλας του Heinrich von Kleist "Οι μαριονέτες". Η πλαισίωση αυτή δείχνει ότι με τη χρήση των προσωπείων του προφήτη και του πιερότου ο Φιλύρας συνδυάζει, αφενός, τη ρομαντική αντίληψη για την δραστικότητα του ποιητικού λόγου και, αφετέρου, την επίγνωση της βίας που εμπεριέχει η διαδικασία της αισθητικής μετουσίωσης.