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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Interpreting Irony in Film: Intention, Rhetoric, and Irony’s Edge

Author : James MacDowell

Published in: Irony in Film

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

This chapter of Irony in Film confronts key theoretical questions that irony raises for the practice of interpretation concerning intention, rhetoric, and the possibility of misinterpretation. Some theorists claim that irony cannot be a property of texts but is rather an interpretive strategy employed by readers; thus, if a text is not read as ironic, then it is not ironic. By contrast, MacDowell proposes that to express oneself ironically is to have ironic intentions; according to this argument, an irony intended by a film is an irony present in that film, regardless of how it may be read. This case is made partly via an extended analysis of the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ scene from Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979).

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previous chapter Ironic Filmmaking: Properties, Devices, and Conventions
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Metadata
Title
Interpreting Irony in Film: Intention, Rhetoric, and Irony’s Edge
Author
James MacDowell
Copyright Year
2016
Book
Irony in Film

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-32992-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-32993-6

Copyright Year: 2016

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-32993-6_4