„Ow (...) Mr. Engineer" (On Romantic Irony) Cover Image

„Hajjaj (…) mérnök úr!” A romantikus iróniáról
„Ow (...) Mr. Engineer" (On Romantic Irony)

Author(s): Sándor Bazsányi
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Pannonhalmi Főapátság

Summary/Abstract: Irony is one of the most important rhetorical figures which have influenced our view of the connection and mutuality of rhetorical and aesthetical aspects of literature. In the modern age, Friedrich Schlegel was - to use Hegel's expression - „the father of irony"; thus founding the tradition of romantic irony which, in spite of the suspicion or, rather, hatred towards Hegelian philosophy, has reached its climax in the works of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Beside romantic art criticism and idealistic philosophy of art, the modern concept of irony has its root in the context of ancient literature (Aristophanes, Plato), moral philosophy (Aristotle), and rhetoric (Cicero, Quintilian). In the history of the category, two main aspects of irony have been alternating each other: irony as a rhetorical tool governed by the intention of the orator and the author, on the one hand, and irony as a linguistic event with a desperately unpredictable output, on the other. Reading Kant, Schlegel, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, this essay is concentrating on the latter case.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 37-45
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Hungarian