L’ironie et l’être. De l’ironie socratique à l’ironie postmoderne
Irony and Being. From Socratic Irony to Postmodern Irony

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to outline a short history of the concept of irony relating it to the problem of the being. Before we consider it a mode of discourse, irony is a state of cleaved conscience of the human being, which, once the being is obscured, is divided between the existence in the world and the quest for unity. Starting with Socrates’ irony, the division between being and seeming is put forward and the dialectics are presented as a means to repair the division by using the power of logics. Schlegel inherits this concept of irony both as a result of the cleavage and as a means of reparation. Irony becomes the alternation of self‑creation and self‑destruction for Schlegel and it is considered the only means to grasp wholeness in chaos. At present, irony gives up the quest for unity and it welcomes outbursts by pushing the logics of chaos at extremes. Postmodern irony challenges the Platonic dichotomy by leveling the difference between being and seeming.

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