If it is a truth universally acknowledged that there is ‘irony’ in Jane Austen’s novels, there is far from general agreement as to how that irony works. Most critics hold that there is a gap between what the novels say and what they mean, but different schools of criticism interpret that gap in contrasting ways. This article assumes that such critical disagreement arises from the multiplicity of voices in Austen’s oeuvre, and more specifically, from the evaluative confusion or indeterminacy created by what Sperber and Wilson call an ‘echoic’ use of irony on the narrator’s part. This article, however, registers a dissatisfaction with Sperber and Wilson’s definition, and proposes to rewrite ‘echoic irony’ as ‘perspectival disengagement’ – a more neutral and general term capturing the narrator’s ability to subsume other characters’ voices while at the same time subtly indicating that their viewpoints are not quite his/her own.

The Poetics of Disengagement: Jane Austen and Echoic Irony

MORINI, Massimiliano
2010-01-01

Abstract

If it is a truth universally acknowledged that there is ‘irony’ in Jane Austen’s novels, there is far from general agreement as to how that irony works. Most critics hold that there is a gap between what the novels say and what they mean, but different schools of criticism interpret that gap in contrasting ways. This article assumes that such critical disagreement arises from the multiplicity of voices in Austen’s oeuvre, and more specifically, from the evaluative confusion or indeterminacy created by what Sperber and Wilson call an ‘echoic’ use of irony on the narrator’s part. This article, however, registers a dissatisfaction with Sperber and Wilson’s definition, and proposes to rewrite ‘echoic irony’ as ‘perspectival disengagement’ – a more neutral and general term capturing the narrator’s ability to subsume other characters’ voices while at the same time subtly indicating that their viewpoints are not quite his/her own.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
morini - the poetics of disengagement, 2010.pdf

non disponibili

Tipologia: Documento in Post-print
Licenza: Non pubblico
Dimensione 250.26 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
250.26 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/864144
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 5
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 3
social impact