Reviews for Irony

The average rating for Irony based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-10-14 00:00:00 Kelly Nash I learned quite a bit about irony from this book. As Colebrook notes, [d]espite its unwieldy complexity, irony has a frequent and common definition: saying what is contrary to what is meant, a statement she traces back to Quintilian ("who was already looking back to Socrates and Ancient Greek literature"). It could be a ridiculous counterfactual, like saying "Another day in paradise," when the weather is appalling. . . . Yet "[w]e live in a world of quotation, pastiche, simulation, and cynicism: a general and all-encompassing irony." What then is the poor reader of book reviews to do if, in passing in a review clearly about Colebrook's careful elucidation of the complex history of irony, I assert, "I think Goodreads' new policy regarding book reviews needing to be about the book makes wonderful sense"? Or that deleting a review that exhibited irony, like in such an assertion, is a wonderful mise-en-abyme demonstrating the very cynical context in which the reviewer grapples with the difficulty of aboutness, while also exposing the complexity attendant with being honest or genuine in reviewing? I do love me some irony, and Colebrook's book is quite good. And THAT is how you do a review about a book, motherfuckers.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-08-23 00:00:00 PETE BAUMANN "Irony lies in the tensions of language" or so Claire Colebrook reminds us on p19 of this excellent critical introduction to and exploration of one of the most ill-used, misunderstood concepts in contemporary literary theory and philosophy. She effective grounds her case in ancient Greeks, shows how notions and understandings of irony changed with the Romantics, and explores contemporary and postmodern deployments of irony. In doing so she illustrates the broader theoretical and conceptual points by drawing on well known literary texts. It is a great example of an excellent series.