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Published in:
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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Introduction

Author : James MacDowell

Published in: Irony in Film

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

Irony in Film is the first book to offer a detailed engagement with how films can create irony and how we might best interpret it. This introduction establishes the three main kinds of irony with which the study is concerned: situational, dramatic, and verbal (or communicative) irony. Also explained are some of the book’s theoretical assumptions, including the value of taking a rhetorical approach to irony, and the premise that interpreting ironic expression demands inferences about intention. It is suggested that analysing irony in the medium of film requires us to attend to concepts such as tone and point of view. Finally, it is proposed that American narrative cinema represents a productive starting point, not a terminus, for the discussion of irony in film.

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next chapter Irony in Film: Theorising Irony for a Mongrel Medium
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Metadata
Title
Introduction
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_1