Irony and the Ironic

The Critical Idiom

by D.C. Muecke

Muecke, Douglas Colin

Genres: Literature, Nonfiction, Philosophy

110 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[KamRun · Rating 1 out of 5]

یا مطالب کتاب خیلی نامنسجم بود، یا من خیلی پرت. در هر صورت و در یک کلام، اتلاف وقت

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoroughly boring and boringly thorough. One wonders whether Muecke has indeed a sense of irony. God, at least it is obvious that Wayne Booth does! I've never read anything on irony that is so boring. And it is very (ironic?) that he manages to stumble through a whole history of evolution where the word is concerned, ending with 'post modern' irony, resulting in a crazed proliferation of meanings that exceeds even the 'post-modern' open dialectic that he talks about. In short, there is little *conceptual* clarity -- is there so much of a difference between Irony of Events and Cosmic Irony -- one wonders. He's so busy trying to collect the various disparate meanings that he doesn't bother to examine what exactly *makes irony irony*. He makes it worse with diagrams and flowcharts, which confuse one more than Lacan's mathematics. He also manages to find a host of people as incredibly boring as him -- and cite them! I guess birds of a feather do flock together. I gave up reading carefully after the 2nd chapter: enough is enough, I don't care. Give me back my Kierkegaard or something. Please.

[Ehsan Mohammadzadeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

در عین کم حجم بودن بسیار جامع بود و نسبتا خوب طبقه‌بندی شده بود. رفرنس‌ها بسیار مفیدن و قضاوت نویسنده درباره‌شون قانع‌کننده‌اس و قابل اعتماده. موضوعیه که جای بسط زیاد داره و می‌تونه موضوع جذابی برای کلاس‌های نویسندگی باشه.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1970 but reads like something from the 40s. It's a good short but thorough treatment. I don't know what sort of developments in irony there have been in 50 years but I would definitely like to read something more current.

[Dana Safian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book-length guide to what could ironically be presented in about 10 pages. A great deal of literary instances are wasted to clarify the same point again and again.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been puzzled by the various ways in which the words irony and the ironic are used. This wonderful little book [101 pages:] gives a history of the use of the word, classifies types of irony and, most interestingly, says something about the emotions associated with irony. It also provides numerous examples of literary irony.