play and irony
Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Sat, 24 Feb 96 17:10:20 EST
Judy's questions are all good ones. Yes, I think it is the
_relation_ we construct between 'fantasy' and 'reality' that
matters, not any actual difference between them. I don't quite
see 'guilt' as a meta-stance, but Irony is a very good candidate,
and in the general family of play, but with a more serious tone
perhaps. I don't think one can quite make a religion of irony
(i.e. qualify it as a 'pious'/authentistic stance in Bill's
earlier terms), though some people do seem to try! Why does un-
ironic, playful humor seem to me to be more effectively
subversive of monological discourse stances than irony, which
claims to be the more serious adversary? Is it perhaps because
irony still binds us too much into the frame of that about which
we are trying to be ironic? because irony does not allow us to
let go of ego quite as well as playfulness?
I have not looked at Wayne Booth's _Rhetoric of Irony_ for a very
long time (he was a friend and mentor in my student days); it
might have some clues.
JAY.
-------------
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU