What does "irony" mean? Can anyone give me an example?

Irony

Example (joke)

A wordy man asked his neighbor: "Why is your pig so thin?"

The neighbor said: "Because he refuses to eat!"

The wordy man asked: "Why?"

The neighbor said: "This kind of pig has a too long mouth."

The wordy man asked again: "Why do you refuse to eat when your mouth is too long?"

The neighbor said: "With such a long mouth, it only digs at the roots and groans. Why bother eating!"

Explanation of irony:

The word irony comes from ancient Greece, and its definition is a process of continuous development.

The classical period has three meanings: 1. Pretend to be ignorant. In the comedies of Aristophanes, there is always a character who says foolish things in front of an opponent who thinks he is wise, but in the end these foolish words prove to be the truth, causing the opponent to admit defeat. 2． Socratic irony (the other party unconsciously reveals flaws under his consultation and questioning) 3. Roman irony (the literal meaning is inconsistent with or opposite to the actual meaning), people call King Oedipus "the perfect human lord and the wise god", but they don't know where he is or how he was born.

In the first half of the 19th century, German Romantic literary theory transformed the concept of irony, expanding it from a rhetorical concept to a literary creation principle. German literary theorist Friedrich Schlegli declared that as a creative principle, irony is "recognizing the fact that the world is essentially paradoxical, and only an ambiguous attitude can capture the contradictory integrity of the world." ".

In the 20th century, in the hands of New Criticism, irony has been further elaborated. Eliot, Richards, and Empson all talked about irony. Brooks gave a more detailed explanation of irony. He defined irony as "the obvious distortion of a statement by the context." For example, "a sunny day", this sentence can have the opposite literal meaning in a certain context. Context can reverse the meaning of a sentence, which is irony.

The most salient feature of irony: that is, what is said is not what it refers to, that is, the actual connotation of a statement is contradictory to its surface meaning. From a poetic point of view, as Richards said, irony comes from Regarding the "balance of opposites", that is, aspects that usually conflict with, exclude, and cancel each other out are combined into a state of balance in poetry. This poetic feature of irony ultimately relies on the role of context.

Irony in poetry is first of all a language skill. From the perspective of the use of language skills, the types of irony can be divided into exaggerated narrative, truth-telling, poetic theory, etc.

In the textual interpretation of poetry, there is also irony formed at the thematic level: that is, the complex thematic meaning of this article has two or multiple opposite and complementary manifestations, forming a strong ironic meaning.

2. Interpretation of irony

The German poet Heissenbüttel is a member of the German Concrete School of Poetry, and his poems inevitably feature the play of words of the Concrete School of Poetry. The shortcomings of "So What" are not very serious. Basically every sentence in the poem "So What" is contradictory. The twelve sentences in the first paragraph are twelve pairs of paradoxes. A very decent person on the surface In fact, he is the most corrupt person, the honest person is incredibly a whistleblower, vitality and weakness, chastity and indulgence, generosity and stinginess... These twelve pairs of paradoxes are the reflections of real life. The revelation of the fact that some superficial phenomena are inconsistent with the actual situation behind the phenomenon.

The arrangement of these examples of paradoxes does not seem to have a very deep connotation in itself. Compared with Pope's paradoxical poem "On Man" which is full of philosophical thinking (hesitation, soul or body, / life The only way to die is to die, and to think only to make mistakes; / His reason is like this, no matter / he thinks more or less, he is still ignorant...), and even seems to be playing word games, but the wonderfulness of this poem But it is a clever use of irony. Where does this ironic effect come from? Let's take a look at the title of the poem - "so what". On the other hand, there is a sober realist who powerfully reveals and strongly criticizes the bad social phenomena. He spits everywhere and is righteous. , but the other side seems to be very confused and has seen through the world. Facing the arrogant Party A, he said lightly "so what" - so what? The implication is that you can change this reality? Who will listen to you? Why do you keep chattering like this without getting tired or annoyed? Don't act like "I am alone in the world", man, you are still young! As a result, the poet's positive and negative attitudes towards reality (critical and indifferent) formed a strong contrast, producing a strong ironic effect, which gave this poem, which originally belonged to the concrete school of poetry, a new aesthetic significance and made the poem more interesting. The theme meaning has multiple manifestations, 1. The poet does not want to expose and criticize social ills, but only wants to ridicule those "radicals" who do not know the depth. 2. After the poet denied the "so what" approach of the "radicals", he actually made a more profound exposure of the dark reality, thus creating a strong ironic effect. Similarly, the second, third, fourth and fifth stanzas can produce ironic effects with the title of the poem respectively, so I won’t go into details.

Another poem by Heissenbüttel, "The Oedipus Plot Made in Germany 1965," also uses irony on several levels:

1. The Oedipus plot, that is, the Oedipus plot, but the word mother does not appear in the poem. The word "dad" is all that comes into view.

2. The era of father Hitler’s rule has passed, but the remnants are still there. The shadow is still there, and we demand that all shadows of Hitler be eliminated, but Joseph Goebbels, the former Nazi propaganda minister, is now in power.

3. Hitler was a madman and a "butcher", and so was his propaganda minister, but now he wants to take power as a "sane man". This is the Oedipus made in Germany in 1965 Pus plot.

The use of irony at these three levels shows the poet's dissatisfaction and ridicule of German politics in 1965.

There are also examples of the use of irony in ancient Chinese poetry, such as Li Shangyin's "Jia Sheng". "Historical Records·Biography of Qu Jia" records: "Jia Sheng came to see him. Emperor Xiaowen accepted the order and sat in the Xuan room (the main room in the front hall of Weiyang Palace). He felt about ghosts and gods, and asked about the origin of ghosts and gods. Jia Sheng was like this because he had Taoism. At midnight, Emperor Wen sat at the table in front of him and moved his knees closer to him. After he had finished, he said, "I haven't seen Jia Sheng for a long time, and I thought I was doing something wrong now." In the minds of ordinary feudal literati, this is probably a grand event worthy of exaggerating the meeting of the emperor and his ministers. But the poet Li Shangyin was original and wrote new ideas.

Jia Yi was an outstanding politician and writer in the early Western Han Dynasty. However, he was slandered by the conservatives and was demoted to the title of Prince of Changsha. Many years later, Emperor Wen of China visited his ministers in search of talents. He was supposed to discuss national affairs and ask Jia Yi about the policies and strategies for governing the country. Unexpectedly, he instead asked about ghosts and gods. Li Shangyin seized on this unnoticed matter of "asking ghosts and gods" and used irony to create an unexpectedly strong ironic effect.

"The promulgation office seeks talents and visits ministers, but Jia Sheng's talents are even more unparalleled." I start from the front, without any derogatory meaning. The first sentence is specially marked with "seeking" and "visiting", which seems to warmly praise Emperor Wen's earnestness and sincerity in seeking talents, and his sincere and humble attitude towards talents. It is true that seeking talents is as thirsty and as open-minded as a valley. "Seeking talents" leads to "visiting and chasing officials", which shows that his net of talents has reached the level of "nothing is left in the wild". "Jia Sheng's talent" is used to praise "Jia Sheng's talent", which makes people admire Jia Sheng's young talent, eloquent discussion and splendid spiritual outlook.

The discussion between Emperor Wen and Jia Sheng unknowingly ended up "at the banquet in the middle of the night", vividly depicting Emperor Wen's humbly inquiring, attentive listening, and even "unknowingly sitting at the table in front of his knees" at that time, turning the historical trace into a A vivid, tangible picture full of life. Through the rendering of this detail, Emperor Wen's praise of Jia Yi's talents was pushed to the highest point from "seeking" to "visiting" to "praising". However, the turning tone also began at the climax. However, the poet did not The muscles and bones are exposed, and the twists and turns are hard, but gently turned with the pen of chant, that is, the word "poor" is added in front of "Midnight's empty front table", which means "poor". The seemingly understated "pitiful" does not seem to have a stronger emotional color than "pathetic" and "lamentable", but together with the last sentence "don't ask about the common people, ask about ghosts and gods", it forms a strong irony with the first two sentences. An emperor so solemnly seeks talents, humbly inquires, admires and admires Jia Sheng, and even "takes the banquet in the middle of the night", which makes us think that he is discussing the way to govern the country and the people, but in the end it is the original question of "asking ghosts and gods". What kind of seeking for talents is this? However, Jia Yi was full of knowledge and ways to govern the country. The king did not ask him about these things. He summoned him from afar, but he was asked about ghosts and gods. Is this the emperor's sorrow or Jia Yi's sorrow? In this strong irony, we see the sorrow of an emperor and a minister, and the sorrow of a country and a dynasty.