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'Irony' comes from the Greek eironeia (εἰρωνεία) and dates back to the 5th century BCE.This term itself was coined in reference to a stock-character from Old Comedy (such as that of Aristophanes) known as the eiron, who dissimulates and affects less intelligence than he has—and so ultimately triumphs over his opposite, the alazon, a vain-glorious braggart.
Dramatic Irony is when the reader knows something important about the story that one or more characters in the story do not know. For example, in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the drama of Act V comes from the fact that the audience knows Juliet is alive, but Romeo thinks she's dead. If the audience had thought, like Romeo, that she ...
Her mature novels employ irony to foreground social hypocrisy. [11] In particular Austen uses irony to critique the marriage market. [12] Perhaps the most famous example of irony in Austen is the opening line of Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a ...
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, using language designed to encourage or provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action.
Apophasis (/ ə ˈ p ɒ f ə s ɪ s /; from Ancient Greek ἀπόφασις (apóphasis), from ἀπόφημι (apóphemi) 'to say no') [1] [2] is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by either denying it, or denying that it should be brought up. [3]
Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony is a non-fiction book written by Linda Hutcheon on the subject of irony. Hutcheon rejects the traditional definition of irony as antiphrasis, or saying the opposite of what one means. Instead, she suggests that irony is a “...semantically complex process of relating, differentiating, and ...
Repetition is the essential comedic device and is often used in combination with other devices to reinforce them. The "callback" in comedy writing—in which a statement or theme is recalled as the punchline or close of a scene—is a classic example of the tension and release that are possible using repetition.
Rhetorical criticism – analysis of the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate; there are many different forms of rhetorical criticism. Rhetorical question – a question asked to make a point instead of to elicit a direct answer.